Learning how to be thankful can be a true challenge sometimes. However, it is in those challenges that you find a deeper meaning of what being grateful is. As I ponder on what being thankful means, I am referred to the saying, “to die is to live, and to live is to die.” In a Christian view, this means to die to yourself, your will, and your ways so you can allow Christ to live in you, then you live for Him, His will, and His ways. Whereas to live is to live for the ways of the world that lead to a death inside of you that is like depression.
As I think about this, I realize that too often in my life, I have run from the way God wants me to handle or do things because the pain hurts, and I like what I want right now instead of doing it in God’s way. Therefore, when something presents itself, and it is what I want, I am easily pulled in because it shows no pain upfront, but there is a pain in the long run. It is like a kid walking into a candy store. All you see is the candy and how sweet it is. You don’t know the pain it will cause your teeth. All you see is that it can offer you what you want now with no pain. Over time the sweetness from the candy starts to wear on your teeth, decaying them away until the pain is so deep it causes a hole. Then one day at the dentist, you are told you have a cavity. The sad thing is so many of us are lured into this thinking. You see God’s way as taking what seems “forever,” painful from the start because you have to adjust your ways and thinking to align with His. But the truth is the pain is upfront, and as you allow Him to come in and renew you in the area He is trying to work in, the pain dies down and is replaced with a lasting joy that makes you thankful in whatever you are facing.
As a person that used to be addicted to chasing after what I wanted right now and running from pain, I have realized that what I wish to do right now, my character is not ready for, and pain is inescapable. You can deal with the pain upfront the way God wants you to the first time. Allowing him to prune you in areas that need pruning to create a beautiful blossom, so as He rises you up to the desires He has put in your heart, you are ready holistically. Or you can take the ways of the world. The world’s methods offer what feels suitable up front, which is to live for the moment, but it leads to death on the inside and, in the long run, becomes too much to handle. Instead of being the Eagle you are created to be and soaring upward, you find yourself fighting against the wind going up and down in your desires. Then you find that the pain leads you back to where you began with God, which is the way God wanted you to handle it in the first place.
I have come to realize that as I do it in God’s way, I am no longer going up and down. Upward is the only way you go. Not only that, I learned that as you sit at the feet of Jesus and keep your focus on Him, you go faster and with less effort than if you were doing it on your own. To add to that, you have contentment, satisfaction, and peace within you that you did not have doing it outside of God’s way. The best part of doing it God’s way is that as you allow Him to come in and prune you that Satan becomes defeated in your circumstances, and you no longer want to run or find quick gratification because you have what you need in Christ alone. It is the “win, win” situation, not the “win, lose” position.
Windy Wen 