You Can Be Grateful

As I sat down to write this, an inspirational, all-time classic movie played in the background: Twister. 
Ok. So maybe not an Oscar winning movie. Or even a top ten best. Regardless, the scene that was playing fit so well with this particular topic that I can't help but post it:

"Things go wrong. You can't explain it. You can't predict it. You have to stop living in the past and look at what you have right in front of you." -  The late Bill Paxton - Twister

Those "things that go wrong" come in all shapes and sizes. Some are big to me but not to you. Some are just speed bumps to me, massive road blocks to the next person. What seems huge one day may be completely irrelevant the next.  I won't ever forget that horrific moment in high school when my pants split down the backside in front of everyone. It makes me laugh out loud today, but I can assure you it did not make me laugh then. The pain of infertility, not once but twice, brought me to my knees in prayer that forced a dependence on God I would have never experienced without it.
You have your own past "things". Moments or circumstances that plague you still.  Some "things" are just not easy to gain perspective on ever. But what if the "things" server a bigger purpose?

Have you heard the story of Lazarus?  It's an action packed story in the book of John. There's sickness, death, grief, doubt, distrust, plot twists, quiet moments...just packed. One of the biggest lessons you can draw from the story, in my opinion, is on perspective. Lazarus is sick and his sisters plead with Jesus to heal their brother. They have tons of faith and know his power. But Jesus doesn't go right away. In fact, he delays for 4 days and Lazarus dies. Mary and Martha's request was denied and they were left to wrestle with all of the crap that was left. Here's where perspective comes in. If Jesus had simply gone to Lazarus and healed him, he would have missed additional opportunities. The opportunity to share an intimate moment about his true power identity with Martha. The opportunity to reveal his empathetic nature as he weeped in front of a crowd. The opportunity to not just heal a man, but actually raise him from the dead so that many would believe. The impact of this story would have been far less on everyone around him if he would have just gone to Lazarus and healed him. It would have had fallen a little more flat to you, as the reader, some 2000 years later.

John 11:41 "Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me."

Every circumstance is an opportunity. It's an opportunity to learn and grow. It's an opportunity to really evaluate life and what you have been given.  I'm not saying it's easy to just put on a happy face and try to look at the bright side of things. There is so much more to this idea of being grateful than just putting on a set of rose colored glasses. It's a way of living life knowing that there is a deeper purpose for all of it. If we truly move through life looking for ways to examine it from a greater perspective, then being grateful for those smaller moments become sweeter and perhaps, a bit easier. If we start actually looking for ways to be grateful, our hearts begin to overflow with thankfulness and it spills into all of the other areas of our life.


Engage your Kids -  

Activity: At the end of the day, name one thing you are thankful for from that day.

Read: John 11:1-44

Discuss:
If you woke up tomorrow and you only had what you thanked God for today, what would you have?
What does perspective mean?
Can you think of a hard time you are now able to look back on and see the good that has come from it?

Reiterate: You can be grateful in the big and small.