Thankfulness – Part 3
Nov 25th, 2009 by ljkim
But isn’t this all just positive thinking mumbo jumbo? Well, I don’t know if Deborah Norville’s book is, or if Robert Emmons studies were… What I’ve passed on to you is pretty much all I know about either of them. I’m sure there’s plenty good in both of their work! But at the same I’m a fan of Barbara Ehrenreich who actually had breast cancer, and couldn’t stand the yoyo’s who kept insisting she maintain a positive attitude. And I agree with her that the positive thinking culture (or shall I say cult?) is a problem… If you want to get past being a third rate anything – you have to be able to face the bad news, face what’s really wrong, and do what you need to fix it.
So allow me to clarify my thankfulness thesis…
In a world in which the ultimate reality is purely “survival of the fittest” (as coined by Herbert Spencer, not Charles Darwin) – where there either is no god, or at least no god that cares a dime about you… in THAT world, you have no good reason to be thankful unless you happen to get something you want. The key to happiness in that world is to * just keep getting stuff you want.*
BUT… in a world in which you have a Father in Heaven who loves you… whom you were separated from (because of sin), but in which every sin is now forgiven (except the sin of rejecting forgiveness) – and now you’re adopted as God’s sons… To which your Father now says, “ask me for anything!” In THAT world, you have every reason to be grateful. And if you’re not, your main problem (and mine) is (what can only be described as) your pathological ungratefulness.
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