Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more.
~Melody Beattie
Thanksgiving, to me, used to mean a long weekend, turkey and football. Now, however, it has become my favorite holiday because of a tradition at my church that has taught me to literally count my blessings.
For years, I had suffered from bouts of depression. One thing that fed the depression was an attitude of discontentment. I never seemed to be happy with my life, especially when I would compare it to someone else’s. Everybody always appeared to be more successful than I was, and I would frequently feel I was not measuring up to either my own potential or the world’s expectations.
Then, in 2008, I started attending Cherry Hills Church in Springfield, Illinois. Every year, they have an evening service on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Two things happen every time — the food drive and The List.
The week before the Thanksgiving service, every chair in the church has a paper bag underneath it for people to take to a grocery store and fill with food items to be donated to local ministries. Then, at the evening Thanksgiving service, a team of volunteers places all the filled bags of food at the front of the church. The bags of food completely cover all of the steps up to the stage, which is more than fifty feet across. It is quite a sight!
Included in the church bulletin is a sheet with blanks numbered 1 to 100 on the front and back. At the top, it says, “Lord, I thank you for…” The first time I saw this at a Thanksgiving service, I wondered how I would ever be able to think of 100 things I was thankful for.
The pastor allowed a few minutes at the end of the service for us to start filling in our 100 blanks. He said we didn’t have to necessarily complete it just then. Rather, this was an exercise to help us focus on gratitude. I looked at my blank list and was somewhat intimidated. I figured I could probably do ten or twelve, but 100?
Then I heard some kids next to me challenge each other to a race to see who could fill in all 100 the fastest. My competitive nature kicked in. I was not about to be shown up by a bunch of kids. So I started filling in blanks with anything I could think of — big things, little things, serious things and silly ones. I tried to think of any situation in my life where I had ever said, “Thank God for…” Something. Anything. To my own astonishment, I completely filled in the list in four minutes. Then I stuck it back in my bulletin and promptly forgot about it because the service was about to end. What I didn’t know was that the real “service” was just beginning.
There were well over a thousand bags of food sitting at the altar, but every item in every one of those bags needed to be sorted and loaded on a truck. While we had been in the Worship Center hearing a message, singing songs, and filling in our lists, the same group of volunteers that had brought all the bags of food to the altar was setting up tables in the lobby for sorting. There were a dozen or so categories of food items, and two or three volunteers manned each table.
As soon as service was dismissed, many of the 600-plus people in attendance came forward to grab a bag of groceries, and the sorting began. The lobby at Cherry Hills became a roiling sea of humanity, bags, boxes, and cans. In just about an hour, thousands of food items were sorted, counted, boxed and loaded. By 8:30, anyone could have walked into the lobby unaware that anything had taken place there. What a night!
One day not long afterward, I was feeling particularly sorry for myself for no good reason. I found myself sinking into my familiar emotional chasm when I remembered the list.
I took it out and read through it. Obviously, I had filled it out in a rush, but now that I stopped to really think about the 100 entries on the list, my perspective began to change. I found myself laughing and crying at the same time. I started to realize that not only did I have a lot to be thankful for but that the things I had written on that list defined me as a person. They brought out my talents, hobbies, passions, faith, people who had a great impact on me, and so much more.
When one is straining to think of 100 things, the list contains some really random items. For example, #11 on my list was hot sauce. I love hot sauce. I put it on almost everything. But when I think about being thankful for it? Well, then I think back to the food drive that we did the night I made the list. That food was going to people who didn’t have any food of their own on which to put hot sauce. People who didn’t have a place to live. People who didn’t have a job and would have loved to have a boss they couldn’t get along with just to be able to have a paycheck to buy some of that food on which to put their hot sauce.
So, as it turns out, it’s really not a stretch to think of 100 things to be thankful for. I carry my list with me every day in my planner. I do this so that wherever I am, if I am having a bad day, I can pull out my list, circle the next number, and take a few minutes to thank God for it.
Choosing to have an attitude of gratitude has made me more than happy. It has filled me with joy. We use those words interchangeably in our culture, but they mean something different. Happiness is a feeling that comes and goes, but joy is an attitude that can be cultivated. It’s like gas in the tank of my soul. When I give thanks, I feel stronger because I know that there is a power greater than I am who provides me with everything on my list, and so much more.
And knowing that, I can be content and continue to choose joy.
— M. Scott Coffman —
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