As some of you know, I’m a retired Air Traffic Controller. I learned to be a controller in the U.S. Air Force and then continued my career working for the Federal Government. All in all, I retired after 35 years of ‘pushing tin.’ In Air Traffic control, you have one main job: to move planes safely through the airspace between airports as efficiently as you can. To accomplish this, you must correct any issues that arise before they become a problem. What that means is that I spent 35 years looking for what was wrong so I could fix it. The problem with always looking for what is wrong is that it can be hard to see what is right. And when you are unable to see what is right, it’s hard to be thankful.
It’s November, and you’re going to hear a lot about being thankful this month. And you certainly should be thankful. However, to be thankful, you’re going to have to be grateful for the things around you, and gratitude is something that often seems in short supply. Watch the news, scroll through any of your social media, read the newspaper, or talk to friends, and usually, you will hear more about what’s wrong in the world than what’s good. I have this same problem myself. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines gratitude as “The state of being grateful; thankfulness.” We might call these two terms close cousins. To be grateful is to be thankful. And gratefulness is grounded in gratitude, which is a particular state of mind, or we might say, a specific perspective.
Gratitude looks for what is good in your life, in your family, in your church, in your community, and in the world. It can sometimes seem very hard to find things to be thankful for, but when you begin to look for what is good, instead of what is wrong, it’s not as hard as you first thought. So, when I look for the good things around me in Hampshire County, what do I find? I’m grateful to minister in a community where many believe the bible is the Word of God. I’m thankful to serve in a country where you can speak the name of Jesus without worrying about being jailed or murdered (If you hadn’t heard, in Nigeria this isn’t always the case). I’m grateful to be surrounded by others who hold to the doctrines of grace.
Gratitude is the one character trait that each of us needs to possess if we are to be genuinely thankful. I encourage you to start looking for the good in your family, church, and community. And take time to tell others how grateful you are for the good you see in them. Don’t let gratitude become a casualty of what you see in the news or hear from your neighbors. Look for good things to be thankful for. They’re all around you. May God give us eyes to see them.