What it means to be a Christian

“Be grateful for what you have” somehow got twisted to also mean, “Hush up,” in my childhood. It might have been one of the first phrases I learned. It was said to calm a child’s insatiable wants.

Which start small when you’re a toddler, with things like bright red lollipops. Later it becomes big red balls, red dress, red lips, and maybe eventually even red sports cars. They are the tangible manifestation of our discoveries—all kinds of things to experience--sweet, fun, pretty, alluring, dangerous.

It’s easy to be happy when you get what you want. It’s easy to be generous when you have plenty. Easier to diet when there’s no food in the house. The challenge: to always remember that there are so many beautiful things in life some of them are bound to touch you once in a while.

"It's always been my policy to be positive about what lies ahead," a 79-year-old lady from Otsuchi, Japan, said on CNN recently. She is not happy that the tsunami wiped away her home and she lost everything. But she seems to have trained her mind to immediately assume a positive vision of the future.

The story went on to say, “She lives alone, her belongings neatly arranged in little cubicles around her.”

Fact is, there are tsunamis and wars and financial collapses and all kinds of things that will happen and are not the slightest bit within our control. Divorce and death. And aging. And tax audits. Injustice. You may find yourself one day living alone, with all of your worldly possessions neatly arranged in little cubicles around you.

What does it mean to be a Christian in daily life? That’s what we’re talking about in Sunday School during Lent. Well, I think this woman is a great example of thanksgiving.