Keeping sight of what we have
“Gratefulness is a setting of the heart, one that I can choose like a wavelength on the radio.” —Susan Mazrolle
Here are two stories I’ve heard or read about this past week. The first you might have heard as well. It is about the GoFundMe account that has provided tens of thousands of dollars to the Navajo Nation, one of the hardest hit communities by the coronavirus.
There is a saying that, “The Irish never forget.” The financial gifts are coming from Ireland. You might ask, “Why would the Irish send money to the Navajo people?” Well, it turns out, as the saying goes, “The Irish really never forget.”
In 1847 Ireland was devastated by the potato famine. Over a million people died from starvation. The Choctaw nation of Native Americans heard about the plight of the Irish and collected $173 dollars, a huge amount of money at that time, and sent it to Ireland to help support the people there.
Of course they would do something like that. They after all had just been removed from their homelands and relocated to a reservation, the trek known historically as the Trail of Tears. The Choctaw knew grief. And loss. And struggle.
The Irish had never forgotten that gift of support. And when they heard about the plight of the Navajo people they responded. With compassion. And gratefulness.
When I was in Boy Scouts I was elected to the honor organization of the Long Beach Area Council, the Tribe of Tahquitz. As a member of the Tribe, I was part of the summer camp staff during my high school years. And, also, each year during spring break the Tribe would take a trip to visit the Navajo and Hopi peoples to do community service, and learn from them about their history and ways.
Recent pictures of the Navajo reservation reminded me of the situation there. Dirt roads. No running water in many places. Lack of resources that provide information about COVID-19. And on and on. Apparently the Irish saw that too. And they remembered how, 173 years ago, Native Americans came to their aid.
The other story came to me from one of my church members. It’s about a guy who goes hiking, gets lost and for three days goes without food. At his wits end he comes upon an apple tree.
He rejoices at his good fortune, stores about 20 apples in his knapsack, and pushes on. That first apple tasted like manna from heaven! But, by the 10th apple he wasn’t that excited. In fact, as he ate apple after apple he became less and less excited to the point he really didn’t want to eat another apple. The Law of Diminishing Returns.
The storyteller called it the 10th Apple Effect. It can lead to this:
We tend to forget that life itself is a gift. We preachers forget that there are three things about God that we need to say every week to our congregations: God loves us. We cannot earn that love. We cannot lose that love.
We also forget that the best way to show our love for God is to show love to each other.
When we have the choice of remembering or forgetting we all too often choose to forget. Why is that?
Some of my colleagues call me the “Lemonade Pastor.” The reason? I have come to understand (most of the time anyway) that life is what it is, and I can choose to make of it what I choose. God is always bringing something live-giving into each and every situation no matter how bad it might seem at the moment. So I look for that. And God never disappoints.
For that I am grateful.