Focus on the Blessings

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6, NIV 2011).

Have you ever known a truly satisfied individual, truly satisfied with life?
Today after church, I visited a healthcare professional’s mother who was homebound. We shared the Lord’s Supper with her—she shared the truth of life with us. Jean is an octogenarian, fully capable in mind but weakened in body. We had a great time learning from her. As we chatted, she told us how God had been good in her life. She then shared the time she had lost a son in a car wreck; another son was injured in the same wreck and her husband died six months later from a heart attack. Her younger son, now the physician, had called her from college and she had told him the same thing, “God has been so good to us.” That son replied, “What do you mean? When did the good happen?” He could not believe his mother’s attitude. Jean then shared with us, “You know, it’s like I told my daughter in high school. If you have a hundred people affirm you and one person says something bad, you focus on the bad.”

Am I satisfied with God’s goodness?
Do I live in a state of consistent thanksgiving and acknowledgment of His goodness?
Or,
Do I focus on the one serious illness after thousands of days of protection and health?
Do I focus on my time of financial distress and forget the abundance in my life: the food, the shelter, the times of pleasure?
Do I focus on the singular insult after thousands of affirmations from patients and friends?
Do I focus on the spouse or child I lost; or, like this physician’s mother, focus on the blessing of the time I had with them?
Do I focus on my sin or on my cleansing by the cross?
Do I focus on the broken relationship or the One that can never be broken?
Much of my joy in this life is a choice.
And the truth of life for Christ followers is this: the blessings in our lives will far outweigh and far outlast the burdens.

Dear Father,
Thank you for the grandeur of life with its joys and sorrows, all of which can draw us to the truth that life is surely good in you.
Amen