Give Thanks for Life!

 “Be always joyful; pray continually; give thanks whatever happens…” (I Thessalonians 5:18, NEB)

There is much spurious thinking among alleged Christians.  Many, influenced by the false prophets of our time, think that God exists to provide them personal advantages.  They expect God to heal “them” of their maladies, even though God doesn’t heal others with the same maladies.  Many of them claim to love God for what they think they can get out of such a relationship.  Meister Johannes Eckhart (1260-1327) wrote:  

“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow and to love him as they love their cow—they love their cow for the milk and cheese and profit it makes them.  This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wrath or inward comfort.  They do not rightly love God when they love him for their advantage.”

No one is immune to life’s ups and downs.  Life is not a rose garden and life is not just continual chaos.  Life is a mixture.  Give thanks for the mixture.  Douglas Malloch’s (1877-1938) little poem, “Thank God for Life,” helps me remember this truth.

Thank God for life!

There! A meadowlark sings!  

Do you hear it?

For the sigh of the heart,

The contagion of laughter,

For the longing apart,

For the joy that comes after,

For the things that we feel

when we clasp, when we kneel—

Thank God for the sharing,

The caring, the giving,

For the things of Life’s living.  

Another unknown poet expressed it this way:

Thank God for life!

E’ven though it bring much bitterness and strife,

And all our fairest hopes be wrecked and lost,

E’ven though there be more ill than good in life,

We cling to life and reckon not the cost.

Thank God for life!

Grateful for "little Red Boots" and all else!