Point 2. Thankful for Others in Christ
Being Thankful When It Is Hard
The two most difficult things to happen in life are to watch yourself fail and watch someone succeed, especially in an area that you are failing in. And yet, this is Pastor Nick’s second point – we must learn to be thankful for others in Christ.
A pastor of mine, a long time ago in America told a very brief story that went like this. I told my wife, “I love chocolate cake!” She told me “no, you love yourself, and chocolate cake pleases you.” Ouch! C.S. Lewis talks about playing chess and asks the question “do you really like to play chess? If you only like it when you win, it isn’t the game you enjoy, it is the winning. Chess is only the vehicle that you use.” Again, ouch! But these two illustrations point to the problem we have when can’t seem to be thankful for others in Christ: that somehow being thankful lowers us in the eyes/esteem of others, of God.
I believe there are two ways of learning how to be thankful, just as there two ways of exploring the universe. When you explore the universe we either choose a telescope to get the big picture, so see something so large and distant that there is no other way or we choose a microscope to see something so small it is easily missed. The same is true for exploring thankfulness in regard to others. We can either start very big or very small.
Consider someone it hard to like much less be thankful for. When we use our thankful telescope, we are trying to take in all that God has made at once, and just as space is mostly dark and empty, but that isn’t what we focus on when we look up at the sky, we look for the tiny sparks of light. We must do the same with our foe.
We begin with the large: All humans are made in God’s image, you are a human, therefore, you are made in God’s image and that is something to be thankful for. Another may be: You have been chosen by God, that makes you holy, called out, special and that is something to be thankful for.
As above, the other choice is to start small. Every person is made in the image of God and that is doubly so for the believer, who has both the image of the Creator and the Holy Spirit living within them. Since that is true, every person possesses something – a gift, a fruit, a trait or characteristic that you can be thankful for. If the person is especially disagreeable this can come in handy. We can choose to be thankful for a gift we do not want.
I have a friend who loves children, I personally don’t, to me they are, as my old Bible professor used to say in college “Vipers in Diapers.” I could be thankful for that gift - one, because it was true, and two I lost nothing in my own eyes, how I perceived others looking at me or how I imagined God looking at me. I am sure this is NOT the best way to be thankful, these are only examples of ways to be thankful when it is hard.
Tomorrow I want to explore some ways to be thankful and how to show thankfulness.
