I returned home from helping a friend in Atlanta who had major
surgery last week. I discovered as I exited my car I’d left my heart monitor
doctors were using to determine the cause of a few symptoms I was having. I’m
fine, but I needed that monitor. I turned around and went back to get it.
On my second return after around five hours in the car, Jerry and I did a quick turn around and went to an out of town high
school football game. When we parked in the school lot, someone approached us
to point out we had a flat tire. Jerry had to rush off to the locker room
because he was the team chaplain, so I stayed to wait for roadside assistance.
As the mechanic wrestled with changing the tire, I was just about to
stage a pity party for my challenging day. Then, I had the thought that these
are first world problems.
Now that I’ve done a little research, I see that thought was right.
Only about a third of the households in the world have a working car. In
many developing countries, that number drops to single digits. When a dear friend
from Africa visits us, he will pass by a junkyard and want to stop and make a
car. “Those cars would be on the road in Africa,” he says. The cars in our
junkyards would be considered luxury vehicles in many places.
In fact, the car was only the beginning of the blessings I enjoyed that
day. With this in mind, I give thanks for the surgery my friend had which was
potentially lifesaving, for doctors who could do it, and for medical technology
that even enabled me to have that heart monitor. I give thanks for our vintage
but working car, for roadside assistance, which is virtually unheard of in many
places around the world. The list could go on.
I say these things not to make us all feel guilty about our blessings,
but to remember as we enter into this season of Thanksgiving to see
clearly
what God has provided. Let’s acknowledge His amazing blessings and to remember
to share what we have with others. None of the aggravations I experienced a few
days ago would have even been possible had not God already showered so much on
our family.
Here’s to giving thanks in the middle of aggravating days and
realizing we are so blessed.
“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter
what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live”
(I Thessalonians 5:18 The Message).
A Plan for Everything!
It is the sequel to, A Key to Everything available HERE.
