“…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”~ Philippians 4:8
We had an almost perfectly miserable family getaway last weekend. I hurt my knee the weekend before we left, making all our walking plans difficult. Our AirTran flight out of Milwaukee was delayed, resulting in a 3AM nightmare at the rental car place. The national customer service people at Budget weren’t communicating with the local office and our reservation got messed up. And the woman at the counter was stunningly disinterested, rude and unhelpful. We ended up leaving the counter with no car; taking a $60 taxi to our cheap motel. My Maria got an excruciating sinus headache on the airplane, which left her sleepless and hurting the next day. It rained every single day of the weekend, so most of our outdoor plans got scrapped. And then my pricey iPod died inexplicably on the way home. While it was great to see Tesia and be together as a family for a few days, this will not go down in the annals as a favorite vacation.
On Monday afternoon, just before we returned to Logan Airport, as I was leaning on my crabby cane outside a pizza place in Cambridge waiting yet again for my pack of girls to finish in the bathroom, I saw a beggar huddling just down the street. As is customary for all the beggars dotting Harvard Square, he had a tin can with coins in it that he would shake at passers by. There are many such beggars around Boston. But what distinguished this man from all the others was his manner. He would voice loud and profane opinions of people as they walked by him. He would curse them for ignoring him. He would curse them for stinginess. He would mumble curses for reasons only he understood…
Not a very good marketing plan, if you ask me.
Yet there is a good lesson to be found in this crabby, discouraging fellow. When things go wrong, when we find ourselves in disappointing or awful situations, when all the customer service people don’t seem very interested in good customer service, when we honestly want to get away from our getaway or, sadly, when we find ourselves clutching tin cans on the sidewalk, wondering how it all came down to this – cursing the darkness just isn’t very helpful.
In the month of November, we set aside intentional time for gratitude. We intentionally set aside all the darkness and difficulty and choose instead to focus on the good things God has done for us. We give thanks.
We need to do this. We need to give thanks. We desperately need to think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. We need to be reminded of the excellence and praiseworthiness of God and His dealings with us. We need to think about such things and we need more than just one day a year to do so.
But one day is a good start.
Don’t let Thanksgiving this year get consumed by football, family and turkey. As truly wonderful as all those are, we need more than that. We need to wallow around in God’s good stuff – His really good stuff. So take Paul’s words to the Philippians and use it as an outline for your thinking this month. Ask God to remind you of what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Ask Him to help you see what is excellent and praiseworthy. And then thank Him for it all.
My weekend getaway was a bummer in many ways, but there is another perspective to be had. My wife and daughters make me laugh and give me life and love. It makes us wildly proud to see the cool, challenging place our daughter gets to live and study. And it is utterly amazing God has blessed us with the time and resources to even have the possibility of a weekend getaway such as we just had. We are not shaking tin cans at passers by – we live in almost embarrassing luxury. This weekend was no exception. We had some delicious Asian food, wonderful Italian pastries from Mike’s Pastries in Boston’s North End and a nice drive up Cape Cod’s route 6A to artsy Provincetown. Our motels were cheap, clean and nice. There are all sorts of ways to think gratefully about even life’s disappointing moments. There is truly excellence, blessing and wonder to be found everywhere if you take the time to honestly look for it.
May God help us look for it this month! May we find healing and happiness in our gratitude!
Amen.
