Thankfulness – Part 1
Nov 24th, 2009 by ljkim
What if the main reason why you’re ever unhappy or miserable is NOT (entirely) because of negative circumstances or events in your life…but what if the *main* reason has to do with thankfulness?
So I think there are plenty of good external circumstantial reasons to feel miserable…lose your job, lose a friend, lose your arm – all very good reasons. And in a non-Gospel world where there was no God, or God didn’t care, or even if God does care but like a distant relative…there’s really no reason be particularly thankful until you get all the stuff you really want.
But…in a Gospel world where God lives and dies for you – where you are a sinner (the worst you know), but your sins have been absolved and you’ve been adopted into the literal nuclear family of the Almighty… If THAT is the case, then the only way you can be bitter is to be (first) completely ungrateful… To close your eyes to grace and mercy and who you are in the world.
Anyway -I understand that for non-believing friends, that’s a big “IF” – my broader point here is: maybe thankfulness is something you’re missing? maybe even THE thing?
“I believe the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground.
By the way, if the Robert Emmons study I mentioned Sunday peaked your interest,you can check out the highlights from his research project.
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