Gratitude

I'm forty and I feel three some days when I think about life and how much more I have to learn. A new year has brought reflection. Tragic news from friends toward the end of 2010 has had me grieving for those who are experiencing hurt and loss. And what I learned in 2010 is this....this life is hard. Even in the best of circumstances, life is hard and if you don't think so, you are in denial. Because our God did not create us to be comfortable in this world because this world is not our home. As Michael Easley at Fellowship this weekend reminded us this past Sunday, this life/world is just a clean bus stop.

What has brought about this perspective on life...
*reading Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman. Lives changed in an instant and nevermore to be the same.
*a wife learns that her husband and father of her children has cancer. Lives changed in the moment the Dr. gave the news.
*a mom and dad learn their youngest, at age 5, has cancer and has a 75% chance of survival. All that mom can see is the 24% that doesn't survive.
*my dad's cousin and his wife bury their adult son after a fatal car crash. One moment he is eating dinner with them, the next their life on earth changed.

We aren't truly home yet and until we are home with our saviour, we will have disappoint and pain and loneliness.

Edie at Life In Grace and her family lost all their worldly possessions the Tuesday before Christmas when their house burned to the ground. At that moment, God began a new chapter in their lives. He has put them on a new journey. Life will never be the same for them. Not because they lost stuff, but because God rescued all six of them from a burning house and everyday they will be Grateful for His great promise of shelter and safety. Another blogger put together this video using pictures from Edie's blog. I had not heard this song but I plan to make it my anthem for 2011. (Nichole Nordeman "Gratitude")



Be grateful in plenty or in want. God keeps his promises. His plans are not our plans but they are the BEST plans for us because in those plans, we are being made to look like him. There is JOY in being grateful for what God gives and what he takes away.

so blessed
d
What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver