The days are getting shorter, and the skies are getting grayer. It must be November.
I’ve been doing a lot of remembering lately, finally with the wisdom of a 60-something woman.
Using the wonders of hindsight, events in my past are beginning to look very different. I am starting to see the blessings instead of the murk.
Like everyone else, I had some difficult things happen to me in my teens. Hard things happened in my 40s, too.
Life at 19 was complicated. During that year I was forced to make what I thought was going to be a very difficult move. I promise you that I struggled deeply and emotionally.
But almost as immediately as the day of the move, if not during that first week, I realized the beauty of it. I really went from living in a black-and-white world to living in a technicolor one. It was that dramatic and wonderful.
Looking back over 50 years, I can see how God truly blessed me. I should have spent that year rejoicing at my good fortune, but of course, I didn’t.
I think one of my faults has always been to concentrate on the difficulties instead of the blessings. And I’ve had plenty of both.
My 40s were really tough. I don’t think there was a time when I looked for God’s hand in any of it. I just kept my head down and tried to put one foot ahead of the last one.
Not a great strategy, I admit.
Now I can see the wonderful paths that were created for me to travel on. I can see how I was transformed.
Was I grateful at the time? Of course not. Am I grateful now? Beyond measure.
St. Therese of Lisieux is my Confirmation saint. She tells us that prayer is a “simple glance directed to Heaven. It is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy.”
That just about covers it, doesn’t it?
But how in the world do we live lives of gratitude in times of crisis? In times of great need?
On purpose. I think we choose to be grateful on purpose.
When we think of suffering saints, we probably should put St. Paul at the top of the list.
The New Testament is filled with accounts of him being stoned, being shipwrecked, even being abandoned by his friends. He writes of suffering from a “thorn in the flesh.”
And yet he gave thanks.
He was able to write, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”
In other words, be grateful on purpose!