Thankfulness: From The Other Side of the Wall

This was a post of mine to my personal Facebook account on Thanksgiving of 2014. However, the message is still just as meaningful that year as it is this year. I hope you enjoy and have a very...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :D

"I have been meaning to write this article for a while but, I have just never taken the time to do so. I feel that there is a good message in this for anyone who is willing to read it. To be totally honest, I do not think that there is a better time of year to write this.

Thankfulness: From “The Other Side of the Wall”

November 27th 2014

Thanksgiving Day is here once again; the year has gone by so fast. So many good things have happened in my life this year, and I am eager for the good that God has planned in my future. I hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving and that you are truly thankful for the blessings you have been granted. However, I hope we can all practice our thankfulness everyday of the year, even on Leap Years.

We often say “Thanks” to God, people and even our animals. However, I think we have all at times taken the word “Thanks,” or variations thereof for granted. So, I wish to say a few words about being truly thankful, to God most of all.

Personally, my life always has been, and till I die, always will be a work in progress. Looking back, I have in only 20½ years, done and seen things that other people have only dreamed of doing or seeing. I realized that tomorrow is never promised, and the fact that I am here is testament to God's goodness towards me. But to truly be “Thankful” for my life? Well, though I was always taught to be thankful, true thankfulness is something that only became most real to me in the last few years.

One day when I was 15, about 2 days after arriving in Brazil for a 2 week mission trip, I was talking with a fellow group member. The topic at hand was a slum (called a "Favela" in Brazil) which could be see on a distant hill from the very nice house we were being hosted in. He basically told me told me, “That is nothing. Go to the upstairs bathroom; stand on the toilet, and look out the window.” Within a few minutes, I did exactly as he suggested I do, I was shocked to say the least. Directly on the opposite side of the house's retaining wall was a “Favela,” up close.

Though I had seen some bad areas of the city on the van ride to our host's house from the airport, I was now seeing one in much greater detail, how the people lived. In the coming days I would eventually go (twice) into a Favela with my group; however, it was at that bathroom window that I first thought about “The Other Side of the Wall.” Really, I don't know what it is about bathrooms that God likes but, he likes to deal with people there.

Arriving back home in “the States” I thought about the things which I had seen while in Brazil. I became more thankful for the things I took for granted. I knew that by any stroke of fate I could be one of those people living, anywhere in this world on “The Other Side of the Wall.” Actually, being born into an extremely poor family, in a small village in Southern Belize, I was born on “The Other Side of the Wall.” If not for God's grace had I would not be simply thinking on the poverty I had seen, but actively participating in it.

Reflecting back even further, to the age of 3 or 4, memories of my trip to Liberia came to mind. Though my memories of Liberia are not as vivid due to my age, I remember one particular time when I went with my mom to visit an abandoned village which had been destroyed in the recent civil war. I remember walking through what seemed to be the former school house; the remains of a geography lesson was still on the wall, and riddle with bullet holes. Another memory from Liberia is that at some point after we saw the village, mom had reason to visit an orphanage. The children, though poor and parent-less, greeted us with smiles, truly glad to see us, they even sang as a "choir" at one point. Their joy and happiness was not due to riches, toys or iPads (LOL, this was in the late 90's). But their joy came just because they were glad to be alive, have shelter, and food. Many had survived the civil war, and who knows what untold horrors they witnessed. But, they still had a joy that can only come from being truly thankful for their very lives, even though there were not on my "side of the wall.”

I say all that to say this: Thankfulness is not just a word to be thrown around like seasoning on a turkey or about the good deals you get for stuff the day after being “thankful” for what you already had. Thankfulness is a true feeling of gratitude that comes only from joy, a joy you can only get when you truly appreciate the life you have been given no matter what "side of the wall" you may see yourself on.

So whether your turkey is stuffed with bread, or with caviar, I pray you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, one of TRUE thankfulness. Remember: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give THANKS in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

(Seriously, if you have internet and can read this, or anything at all... you have reasons to be thankful!)