SIMPLY BEING GRATEFUL IS NOT ENOUGH

Every one of us has so much for which are grateful. We are abundantly blessed even with all the pain and suffering for which no one of is exempt. Life in this world brings each one of us our fair share of suffering and, for some, it seems, more than their fair share. When I compare the pain and suffering I have endured, whether brought on by my own sinfulness and foolishness or brought on because of something out of my control, to that of others, I have been blessed, abundantly blessed. And for that I am grateful.

I am not alone. Yet, it is not enough simply to be grateful for the blessings of this life, blessing which we have not earned, blessing which, if we are blatantly honest about it, we really do not deserve. We know countless others who have been less blessed, suffered more, yet certainly deserve to have received what we have but have not. When we reflect on this, it really is not fair.

Fairness aside, because we are not the ones in charge here, the issue is still that of gratitude for the blessing received. How do we manifest this gratitude? Simply saying “thank you” to God or to anyone who has blessed us in whatever way we have been blessed, all that is only for starters. It does not stop there. Yes, sometimes all we can do is say “thank you”, but most of the time we can and must do more.

So how do we show our gratitude to God for those blessings? We do so in service to others. It is akin to the idea of paying it forward. Someone does something good for us and we do something good for another. We do not always have to return the favor to the one who has blessed us. Sometimes we cannot. All we can do is say our thanks.

That is especially true when it comes to thanking God for the blessings we have received from God. How can we repay God? We can’t. We can only pay it forward in love and service to others, to others who have been less blessed than us. It is truly heartwarming to read about some of the world’s richest people who are giving away billions of dollars to help eradicate disease, poverty and some of the world’s other ills. Good for them.

None of us is in that category. But when we give from our abundance to those in need, when we give of our time and talent to those who cannot do for themselves what we can do for them, when we pray for those whom we cannot help in any way except through prayer, when we do any or all of this, we are showing our gratitude to God for the blessings we have undeservedly received. Good for us?

Well, yes. But we always need to remember that our blessings are truly undeserved, even the ones we believe we have earned by the sweat of our brow. After all, it was God who blessed us with ability and good fortune and whatever else it was that brought those blessings into our lives. The proper way to show our gratitude is to share those blessings by giving of our time and talent and material possessions with those less blessed.