But We Thank God For Keeping Us Alive

‘Generally, everything is OK now, and we are trying to move on. Things are very hard though, as there are no jobs and so on.

The war is over, and we’ve just finished our presidential elections. Just last week the new president, Ernest Bai Koroma was inaugurated.

But we thank God for keeping us alive!

God bless you, and have a nice day.’

The passage above was a message that I received a little while ago from a young man in Sierra Leone!

The country, like so many around the world, has been involved in a bitter civil war for some time.

It struck me, living in an affluent, peaceful, and free country like Australia, that this young guy should bless me.

Jealous of The USA?

The message I received ties into the topic of being thankful, and is especially relevant at this time of year as the United States celebrates thanksgiving.

I’ve always been jealous that the US should have a Thanksgiving holiday.

Not that I begrudge them the holiday, it’s just the concept of thankfulness that grabs me.

So often today, thankfulness is an unknown concept to so many people!

Our expectations are now so high, that I wonder how we in the west would handle what our parents and grandparents went through during times of economic depression and war!

I’ve been involved in many an argument over wealth, and what it means.

Here in my country, if you are on welfare, then you are still somewhere in the top 20% of wealthy people in the world.

Don’t believe me? If you have an annual income of just $8,000.00 US per annum, you are in the top 13.4% of the world’s population, acording to this website!

Of course, you may not rank highly as far as income is concerned in your own nation, but on a world scale, you are quite well off.

I remember a quote that I saw years ago, ‘Contentment is more than a kingdom’. I often ponder that quote when when confronted by something like my young friend’s email!

I wonder whether I’m more advanced spiritually than I was then, or whether I just have more money, and things to spend it on!

I was talking to my friend Ric about the email, and he asked me which God was being referred to.

My reply, I don’t know, and I don’t care.

What struck me was the heart attitude. A kid with next to nothing, was blessing me, and telling me to have a nice day.

Something to ponder this thanksgiving, and in fact every day of the year.

God bless you and your family, and have a great day!