Thankfulness

What do you do when shit hits the fan?

Be thankful. All the time.

About what, Mary C?

Everything. Anytime. If you're bored, be thankful - lonely, be thankful - fat, be thankful - angry, be thankful - resentful, be thankful - tired, be thankful.

What does that mean, in real life, Mary C? "This paint is getting all over the ceiling, what a pain" - so do I thank God that I have arms to paint at all?

No, it doesn't have to relate to the thing you hate, or the person you're angry at, or the situation that is making you lonely. It doesn't mean intentionally finding the good in a bad situation. It just means, whatever you do, just be thankful. Thank God for the fact that there is a sky. That music is real, that emotions are good. Thank God for Harry Potter; for improved handwriting; for peppermint patties; for Calvin and Hobbes; for living in a house with a piano; for Michelle Obama; for warm February days; for Jayne hats; for telephones; for the ability to go running.

And thank God for that while you're bored out of your mind putting up siding, or resentful about a friend, or achingly lonely. Just thank God. Thanks for everything, Jesus.

This is important because it puts everything into God's perspective. Now you aren't seeing the world from your POV, you're switched. You've entered into God's reality. You have transcended your own little moment of misery or self-indulgence or pride or boredom and remembered what is true about the world:

that God is good, that He gives good gifts, and that HE LOVES.

And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut , lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, 'What may this be?' And it was answered generally thus,'It is all that is made.' I marvelled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nought for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.

- Julian of Norwich