My friend Steve Bagdanov has a great blog that you should follow. This month he’s doing a series on gratitude, and each day there is an interesting new post that will get you thinking about grace and thankfulness. Steve asked me to write a post for one of the days, which I did, so I thought I’d share it here as well.
Me and Steve last year at our 30th reunion.
I’ve known Steve since 1977 when we both showed up as first year students at Westmont. We quickly became close friends, but as the years went by we had kids that needed to be raised and vocations that needed to be pursued. We never lost touch, but we found it hard to stay connected.
Then several things happened that renewed our friendship. Social networking, for one thing, which makes it fun to stay in touch with old friends. All of our kids (his four boys, my daughter and son) all went to Westmont and were all about the same age. And of course we entered that age in life when we began to value relationships as much as anythingelse. In truth, we were both always that way, but perhaps we put more emphasis on it now. Anyway, our friendship has been renewed over the last decade or so, and it’s been great fun.
So here’s the post I wrote for his blog. I hope you enjoy it and that you have a great Thanksgiving!
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“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” Galatians 2:10
The most significant missionary effort ever pursued by the Church began with the mandate to not forget the poor.
Who are the poor? Our minds go to those who have the least in material possessions. But there are also the spiritually poor. They live without the inner grace of God to guide their hopes and dreams. Sadness and ingratitude are often their companions. By contrast, the spiritually rich have the Spirit to warm their hearts and guide them through the most difficult of times.
I know of such a person. She has every right to complain. She is 88-years old and her body still suffers the consequences of a stroke. It is a difficult adjustment for a person who was constantly in motion. Her eyesight has been taken by macular degeneration. So many simple joys – reading, bird watching, driving, watching a movie – are all in the past.
The most difficult part is losing her daughter to cancer. No mother should ever have to bury her child.
It’s amazing that depression doesn’t simply crush her. But she has an inner richness that defies the physical and emotional poverty.
I asked her, “How is it that you fight off the sadness? How do you push it away?”
Her answer was simple, “I’m thankful. Whenever I feel down, I start to think about all the things that I’m thankful for. I’m thankful for good parents who cared for me, for friends who shared life with me, for children that love me, and for a warm home that comforts me. Most of all, I’m thankful for the grace of God. When I’m down, I focus on those things. And my spirits are renewed. How can I be sad when there is so much to appreciate?”
I think of her often. She makes me rethink the poor – and the rich. Her spirit of thankfulness shapes my own heart, mind and soul. She models the grace of Christ.
There is an old Celtic prayer that goes like this:
Bless, O Lord,
this food we are about to eat;
and we pray you, O God,
that it may be good
for our body and soul;
and, if there is any poor creature
hungry or thirsty walking the road,
may God send them in to us
so that we can share the food with them,
just as Christ shares His gifts
with all of us.
Amen.
May we too remember the poor, and may both the spiritually poor and materially poor find their way to our home, for in their company we can find the grace of God at work in our hearts.