“In all things give thanks….” Thessalonians 5:18
It occurs to me that gratefulness, being thankful, requires faith. Faith does not, at first blush, seem to be required to allow me to be grateful for the positives in life. A win, found money, a beautiful sunrise or sunset, a heartfelt “thank you,” all seemingly require no faith. In some sense one could say that those things “just happen” and leave it at that, but the mere fact that I am being grateful seemingly expresses some level of faith, otherwise, to whom or to what is the gratefulness directed?
But of course, life is not always so kind, the object of gratefulness not always so agreeable. Being grateful for “negatives” requires faith in something else, faith in a Master Plan, in something or someone else beyond me or my limited capacity to understand. So, gratitude for an illness, for a run of bad luck, for lost money – those are more difficult as they all require faith to get there.
This is both freeing and scary. The good news is that I am not in charge. The bad news is that I need to make peace with the good news. But for now I can just be grateful for faith, and how it lets me, if I let it, be grateful in all things.
It occurs to me... 