Cornerstone Christian Store Blog

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.  Colossians 2:6-7

Life is a gift.

There are few things that bother me like seeing someone who displays a sense of entitlement. Some people are convinced that the world owes them. Rather than feeling grateful when someone helps them or bestows a blessing on them, they simply expect it. All of us have seen this. It could be the person who blows past someone who is holding the door for them without acknowledging the gift with a “thank you”. It might be the person in line behind you at the grocery store with only one item. Since you have a cart full of groceries, you kindly allow the person to check-out in front of you. Instead of saying “thank you”, they simply move in front of you as if it were their “God-given” right. After all, they seem to think, wasn’t it your obligation to let them pass? Each of us have been around one of “those people”.

But, what if I am one of “those people“? How many times do we forget to be thankful for something because we have simply learned to expect it?   

During one of our cold spells last winter my water pipes froze. I bundled up and proceeded to push myself through the little opening into the crawl space under the house. As I began trying to thaw out the water lines, I became more uncomfortable with every passing minute. Suddenly, as I was working to remedy the situation, one of the pipes ruptured and began shooting out water and filling the crawl space with a mist so heavy that it became hard to see. In a split second I went from being a little annoyed and uncomfortable to being downright frustrated!

Now on the surface my frustration seems completely justified, but where does it come from? Doesn’t it come from my expectation that I should have running water inside my house? Doesn’t it come from my expectation that when I turn on a tap voila, I should be able to partake of all of the clean water that I desire? Have we grown so accustomed to hot showers and personal washing machines that we forget that indoor water is a gift? Beyond that, have we forgotten that water itself is a gift? According to water.org, “884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people”. Isn’t that staggering? Something that is so common to us, so ordinary, so expected is completely extraordinary to 1 in 8 people in the world!

It’s impossible to feel thankful and entitled at the same time. Only as we begin to see all of life as a gift can we truly be thankful for even the seemingly small things. We must remember that what seems insignificant and commonplace to us could be nothing short of a miracle to many others. And for that, let us be continually “overflowing with thanksgiving”!