The choices we make

( Prayers for Hurricane Laura recovery, for California firefighters, and an end to violence)

While scanning through Facebook recently I came across the quote, “If Jesus says we need to feed the poor it’s considered Christian. If a politician says we need to feed the poor, it’s considered socialist.” That’s the world we live in. Especially in this political season, this Presidential Election Year.

What makes matters worse is we are also frustrated and concerned about Covid- 19, the economy, and Race Relations in ways we cannot avoid or ignore. These things affect us all in one way or another. We could call 2020 a perfect storm of negativity.

On a personal note, throw in that I’ve been away from home since January dealing with cancer ( leukemia) and my resulting bone marrow transplant, which happened on July 6. I’m hoping to be able to come home at the end of September.

But my personal experience has helped me through this time, along with the prayers and support of so many friends and family members. I’ve learned much about myself, and about what it means to live through adversity and uncertainty. And for that I will be forever grateful.

Yes I’m grateful.

What does it mean to be grateful, to have an attitude of gratitude? I can tell you what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that everything goes well for you, that the sun is always shining. People of faith will tell you that gratitude is often present in the most difficult of times.

I remember helping out at a Salvation Army location years ago, feeding people in need. Next to me in the serving line was a woman who told me she used to be one of the ones in line to get food. As she became able to support herself she came back week after week to help others, such was her gratitude.

She didn’t have to do that. She could have said, “I’m set now. I’m OK now.” And move on. No, she helped others because of her gratefulness. You see, gratitude is more than an emotion. That woman lived in a tiny apartment, which was all she could afford, took the bus to the Salvation Army, making three transfers to do so, and lived a simple life. By many definitions you could say she was poor.

Her so- called poverty was replaced with gratitude. ( Jesus said something about that. “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”) Gratitude is more than an emotion. It’s a choice.

In her book “Grateful,” Diana Butler Bass writes about gratitude and refers to two aspects of gratefulness, emotion and ethic.

We are grateful when things go our way, when we are emotionally strong. But what about times we aren’t strong, and difficulties overwhelm us?

That’s when the ethic of gratitude becomes so important. I call it an ethos, a way of living in the world. It’s not pie- in- the- sky optimism.

The ethos of gratitude sees the world for all of its ups and downs, the good and the bad, the successes and disappointments.

The ethos of gratitude sees life as a gift, and we have been given the power to choose what we will do with that gift.

Now I’m not saying choosing to be grateful is easy, especially during really tough times. It takes practice. It takes discipline. I think it also sometimes takes, as folks in AA would say, “Faking it till you make it.”

For these last several months it has meant for me to focus less on what I don’t have and more on what I do, to do what I can and not mope about what I cannot. It hasn’t always been easy.

But it’s been worth it.