Recently, somebody asked me what I would do if I were to wake up one morning and only have the things I thanked The Lord for the previous night. When I first heard the question, I didn’t know how to answer. It was one of those things that you never think about because you assume God knows you are thankful for what you have, right?
Well, what if that wasn’t the case? What would you do? The more I thought about it, the more my answer surprised me.
When I first thought of it, all I could think was ‘Wow. What WOULD I do?’ because to be honest, that’s unimaginable because it’s not something we have to worry about. Here in the US, we have plenty, we have more than enough, we are more than blessed. We have houses with heat and air conditioning, we are able to eat three plus meals a day, we have cars to take us where we want to go and if we don’t have a car we have public transportation at our disposal, we have opportunities to go to school to get an education, we have clean water to drink that can be poured from our refrigerators, we have cell phones where at the touch of a button we can talk to anyone we want or search for answers on the internet wherever we are, when we are sick we can go see a doctor that day to get medicine, and the list goes on forever. We are given so much, maybe too much. Even as I sit here and write the words in this post, I am sitting in my living room in a big recliner enjoying the light from our Christmas tree with a big cup of hot tea, not having to worry about a thing. There is so much to thank God for that we don’t even realize.
About a week ago, I was talking to a friend of mine who spent 7 months living in Burkino Faso, Africa. He was telling me how when he would meet people for the first time they would ask about his life in the US, in particular, if he had a car. Now, if you have ever seen my friend’s car you wouldn’t think much about it. He’s missing door handles and it’s older than my friend himself. It’s not much when you compare it to American standards, but when he told them he DID have a car it was the coolest thing they had ever heard. They would walk around introducing him to everyone they knew and they would also be very quick to tell them he had a car. When I heard that story, it really took me back for a moment. They were so excited and thrilled about an old, beat-up car. They didn’t care about what was wrong with it or that it wasn’t very nice, they appreciated it for what it was. In Burkino Faso, they walk everywhere. It takes hours to get to just one place that in the US with a car is very easy to get to. So, if they had a car to drive it would be like winning the lottery 7x’s and that is still not the kind of thankfulness and excitement you would see. It would be BIG news for anyone in that town.
If I were to really think about it, there are so many things in my life that I take for granted. So many things that I assume is a given. But what else could one expect when this is the life I’ve always known? I know that when I wake up in the morning my car will keep me warm when I drive to work. I know that my scrubs will be clean and there will be food to eat. I know that if my sinus infection doesn’t get better I can make an appointment with my doctor to get medicine to take. I know that everything I need for tomorrow is going to be there. I don’t have to wonder about these things. So, why thank God for them if I know all of the above and more will be provided? I thank Him for these things because what if one day I did wake up and nothing was there? What if my day tomorrow was uncertain? What if I had to worry about how I would get through each day or even each moment? What if I had to pray like my life depended on it? Well, maybe that’s what I should be doing. Praying for dependency on The Lord because without Him I have nothing, I AM nothing.
So, to answer the question, what would I do if I woke up one morning and I only had what I thanked God for the previous night? Simple. I would learn to DEPEND on Him. So, maybe that is what The Lord is teaching me through this next season of life. Maybe starting from the moment I was accepted for the race He began teaching me that I NEED Him, more than I realize. Maybe, just MAYBE, I am more than okay with that.
LoveLoveLove, Marie
