The following is a story about how I learned one of the most important lessons to be learned on the World Race. That lesson, was gratefulness.
I spent the entire month of February, my eighth month on the race, living in Poipet, Cambodia. Poipet, conservatively speaking, was not the most ideal place one would hope to stay while in Cambodia. My team stayed at a small church that was converted from an old beer garden some time ago. It was situated on the side of the highway just a few kilometers from the Cambodia/Thailand border. There wasn’t much to the town other than the big casino by the border and the network of villages off the main road. There was absolutely nothing to do in this town other than sit in the local christian cafe which was a 2 kilometer walk down the dusty highway. It was rough, it was dirty, and at most times it was miserable and it was the first time while on the race that I just wanted the month to be over. The fact that I felt this way made me rather upset with myself. You see up until this point the hardest part about the race was leaving and saying goodbye every month but now here I was day one in Cambodia and I already wanted to leave. At the start I had already recognized that something was wrong with me but I didn’t know what. My attitude each day was terrible and my mind always seemed to default to negative thoughts. I had a really tough time having any positive control over my thoughts and unfortunately I let my circumstances get the best of me.
Throughout the first week or so I could tell that God was trying to tell me something and to show me the purpose of why I was walking through the things that I was. I didn’t want to hear it though. It was far more easy to bask in my negatively and just rough it out until the month was over. I knew that this was no healthy way to get by and I was only hurting myself by neglecting the spiritual growth that God had planned for me by placing me here. Things got so bad that I finally broke down. I had hit my lowest point on the race. I was miserable. Every little thing that bothered me seemed to add up. I was covered from head to toe with mosquito and spider bites. I couldn’t sleep at night and due to the constant noise in the church that went on at all hours of the day, it iwas mpossible to get any rest at all. I was ready to quit and just wanted it all to end.
I finally hit this point of deep brokenness and cried out to God, I was tired of the current state of things and knew I needed to change some things internally in order for me to be happy and joyful again. It was then that God reminded me of an old TED talk I had downloaded and watched on my phone over a year ago. Before bed one night I decided to watch it and what happened next was a true miracle. The TED talk was on the topic of gratefulness and went on to explain how it is not the happy people who are grateful, but rather the grateful people who are happy. Here it was, the answer I needed to hear all month long. If I want to be happy and content with my circumstances, first I must be grateful. It was in this moment that my month took a major turn for the better. You see, this 15 minite video was something God placed in my life at the perfect moment and completely shifted my paradigm and way of thought. After I watched it I walked to the outhouse and became overwhelmed with gratefulness for every little thing imaginable and started seeing everything through a new lense. That led to joy and then the unthinkable happened. I soon found myself praising god and thanking him for the squatty potty. Never in my life would I have thought I’d be filled with endless elation over a squatty potty. I know it sounds ridiculous but It was truly a beautiful moment with the holy spirit. For the first time all month my heart was filled my joy, all because I made the conscious decision to alter my perspective and chose to be grateful for everything that was put before me.
I still had a week left and if I am to be completely honest, maintaining my gratefulness was not an easy thing to do. It was a constant battle of taking my thoughts captive and choosing to see things the way God chooses to. I soon found myself fighting a spiritual battle that up until then I didn’t know i was fighting. The biggest front the enemy chooses to attack us on is our mind and I learned a lot about the battle over my mind that month. You see, In every moment of every circumstance there are two trees planted in front of us and both are filled with fruit for us to eat. The catch is that God only wants us to eat from one tree and not the other. One tree represents every thought, attitude, and action that will align with God’s will and purpose. The other is the opposite, every thought, attitude, and action that does not fall in line with the ways of God. You see, He has given us the free will to choose from which tree to eat from, He can’t make that decision for us. All month long I chose to eat from the wrong tree. I chose to align my thoughts with negatively, ungratefulness, and selfishness. All of which does not align with the ways of God. After that breakthrough moment with the TED talk I chose to start eating from the right tree, allowing my thoughts, attitudes, and actions to align with the ways of God. It didn’t take long for me to experience true joy and freedom again.
So what tree are you eating from? How much control do you really have over your thoughts and what are some ways that you can start taking them captive? The next time you find yourself in not so ideal circumstances will you resort to negatively and ungratefulness or will you choose to take your thoughts captive and see things the way God does, allowing yourself to embrace true freedom and the joy that God desires you to have? I encourage you to choose to eat from the right tree and continue to press through those difficult times, overcoming negatively with gratefulness and joy.
Be happy, but first, be grateful.
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
The following is the TED talk to which I spoke of above. If you have 15 minutes to spare, I strongly suggest you watch it and retain the profound message it carries.
David Steindl-Rast: Want to be happy? Be grateful #TED : http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful.html
