056. Gratitude – A Very Good Companion

Good morning friends!

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This is one of the many positive signs we have at the Butterfly House on Bribie Island …

PP     ‘A smooth sea never made a skilful sailor’.

And I could add to that, that ‘A smooth sea never made a strong sailor either.’
-----   Before we speak about the message for today, titled -

‘Gratitude – A Very Good Companion’, I’d like to introduce our wonderful daughter Cathy.

PP1    (picture of Cathy 2 years before)

Cathy has been fighting breast cancer for over two years now, has undergone surgery, is now going through chemotherapy, and the cancer has now begun to invade her sternum and lungs.

PP2   (thinner face photo, then no hair with scarf photo)

I told Cathy I’d be speaking about ‘Gratitude’ today and asked her if she’d be able to tell us how grateful she has been throughout her journey with cancer. With only a few days notice, Cathy said, “Dad, I’d love to.”

So, thank you Cathy.   (Cathy come to rostrum)
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GRATITUDE

I am grateful for a Christian upbringing, even though I

never owned it.

I am grateful for a breast cancer diagnosis two years ago.

I am grateful that that diagnosis turned me TO God and not further from Him.

I am grateful that MY GOD meets me where I am, because I could NEVER   bridge that gap.

I am grateful for the calm amongst the fear, to choose the road less travelled and investigate alternative cancer treatments.

I am grateful knowing that it is God who has VERY clearly led me to the various   therapies on my journey.

I am grateful for reaching the point in the bustle of life where I was unsure if   there even was a God.

I am grateful for the peace in knowing that I can ALWAYS choose to do life from the lap of my Papa God.

I am grateful for God helping me to make sense of my days, when anxiety put  me in a place where I was barely functioning.

I am grateful for the godly friends and support team that God has surrounded   my children with.

I am grateful for God conversations with total strangers.

I am grateful that God’s given me a story to tell and a willingness to share.

I am grateful for the strength and courage of my husband,   my constant companion, and for his growing connection with God.

I am grateful that God’s not so much about the BIG decisions in my life, but  takes UTMOST PLEASURE in being part of the every-day LITTLE things which  make up the 99% of my days.

I am grateful that “I can wait quietly before God. For my victory comes from Him.”

I am grateful for my husband and two beautiful teenagers.

I am grateful for my mum and dad who love and support me, regardless of the decisions I make. They give me a glimpse of the love of God.

I am grateful for the anxiety that became an unwanted companion in the previous 10 years, and for the nervous breakdown that it led me to.

I am grateful for wonderful Christian mentors and therapists who FIRST seek   His leading before ministering to others.

I am grateful for the God conversations with my children.

I am grateful for the dreams and aspirations that God has placed in my heart. 

I am grateful for the amazing generosity of others, even total strangers.

I am grateful that instead of wondering what I’m going to DO in heaven when I   get there, I am in love with my BEST FRIEND and I’ll get to spend eternity with Him, the lover of my life.

I am grateful for His SLOW AND GENTLE leading, teaching me to trust Him more and more each day.

I am grateful for God leading me from a place where I dreaded others seeing   the REAL me, to a point where I embrace those personal and vulnerable conversations with others.

I am grateful for falling in love with that quiet solitude I share with my God and choosing to stop my lips and silence my opinions, as I seek to know God’s will for my life.

I am grateful that He is NOT the God who’ll let you in IF AND WHEN you’re good enough, but the God who constantly draws me with His embrace of pure   LOVE.

I am grateful that God has surrounded me with godly friends, of all religions.

I am grateful that I am finding that the Bible is living and breathing, and that it speaks to each of us in whatever space we find ourselves in.

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I AM GRATEFUL

--------    Thank you so much Cathy.

Friends, I didn’t know what Cathy was going to say, but she has seriously blessed us with her grateful attitude.

After being blessed by Cathy’s talk, we really could go home now!

------  To complement Cathy’s thoughts, I’ve titled today’s message …

PP      GRATITUDE – A VERY GOOD COMPANION

Who has felt grateful for something this week?  ------

Thank you.   Quite a few of you.

What have you felt grateful for?  ------

Thank you very much for your good comments.  So it has been a good week!

------   Please turn to our Bible verse in 1 Thessalonians 5.  

1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18 (NKJV) ------------------  “In everything 

give thanks;  for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Or as the RSV puts it …

PP1   “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

(Q)   Well friends, what would be the opposite to that verse?

PP2    “Don’t give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Satan’s will for you.”

I know we don’t always do things perfectly but we’d certainly like to think we’re doing God’s will a lot more than Satan’s will.   -  Isn’t that right?!     -------

-------  I like to be positive about life, because being positive in amongst life’s hassles certainly makes me feel a lot better.  I can cope better, feel more alive and hopeful, be better company for those around me because I am not always having my “woe is me” pity party, and also be a better representative for Jesus.   ----- I think that most of us would rather be around a positive person than around a professional sore-head anytime – isn’t that right?

As often as possible, I will choose to have positive people as company rather than negative people because I don’t want to be dragged down into the gutter.

The Bible tells us that …

PP1     We grow like the company we keep.

PP2     So make sure we keep positive company, 

            and make sure we be positive company.

-----------   I woke up while it was still dark and opened my eyes,  I felt good.  I looked across at the clock – it was early – it’s going to be light soon.

The bed was warm.  Delphine was beside me – my bride of over 50 years.   But I sensed another presence.  He didn’t speak, and I don’t know how I knew, but I somehow knew, that his name was …

PP    ‘Gratitude’

It felt right to have him there so early in the morning.  It was a nice feeling – I felt warm all over.  I am so blessed.  I have a warm bed, but many people sleep on the cold and dirty street, covering themselves with old rags and cardboard, hoping to keep warm. -----

Over the years I haven’t always slept in a warm bed.  I would rather have had a warm bed but on those cold nights Gratitude taught me just to be grateful that I was alive.

Some people wake up and say, “Good God, it’s morning!”  Others wake up and say, “Good morning God!”  -- Which one are you? -----

Well, I got out of my warm bed and I was grateful the air was warming up and the tiled floor wasn’t too cold, and I caught my little toe on the leg of the bed as I hurried past on my way to the toilet.

I left Gratitude in bed because I certainly didn’t feel like his company right then.  But then when I felt my toe, it was still there.  It hadn’t been torn off and wasn’t broken.  I felt grateful I had a toe.  Many people don’t have a toe – many people don’t have a foot.  And I was grateful that according to the law of averages , my toe could only start to feel better as the minutes went by.  Gratitude was still with me.

I was glad he was still with me, and he said he wanted to stay with me all day.  That seemed OK to me because he has certainly not done me any harm over the years – never!  God is so good.

After I made a mugful of herbal tea, I walked onto the verandah, and for a few minutes watched the ducks and pelicans and other water birds busily swimming around in the dam we had. ----------

PP1    It’s nice to stop and smell the roses  (as they say)

PP2   Too much work and no play makes Jack a dull boy  (they say).

Many of my friends used to say to me, “Ray, you’ve got to stop and smell the roses.”  I would reply – “I can smell them while I’m running!”   But you know friends, you can’t really.  You really do have to stop if you really want to smell the roses properly.

-------  Isn’t it funny how we are so busy that we hardly ever stop to smell the roses.  It’s not really funny though is it – it’s actually very bad.

The waterbirds were enjoying their early morning swim and I felt very good and thanked Gratitude that I had eyes to see them.  I could have complained that my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be when I was younger, but there are millions of blind people who have never seen anything and so I felt grateful and thanked God for my eyes.

After finishing my herbal tea, I was grateful to God for showing our family a healthier way to live – no detrimental tannins and caffeine in our drinks, and a way to better health.

I washed my mug and dried it and put it away.  Over the years I’ve learnt that if I tidy the dishes and keep things clean around the place then Delphine is a better friend and lover to me and I sure do like that.  God gives us some good ideas and we need to put them into practice.  I am so grateful that He puts these good ideas in our heads and then gives us the strength to carry them out.

As I put my jogging shoes on, a shower of rain started to fall and I remembered how when I was young that a bit of rain would have been a good reason for me to pike out and not go jogging or walking.  …

PP    Many people know they should exercise – 

        they get the urge to exercise , 

        and then they quickly lie down 

        in the hope that the urge will go away. 

----  I sometimes feel like that, but Gratitude gave me a shirt to wear on days like that. ---  It says, …

PP   Just do it!

And rain or shine, hot or cold, I feel better after I’ve done it.  ------

------  A long time ago, at age eighteen, something quite amazing dawned on me.  

PP    It dawned on me that I couldn’t change the weather, so I learnt to accept it.

Many people moan and groan about the weather but the funny thing is that moaning and groaning doesn’t change it.  ---  Sure it gets hot  --  but then I’m grateful that at least I won’t freeze to death.  And then it gets cold and I’m so glad I’m not cooking to death.  There are always good points to consider and Gratitude wants to remind us of that. -----

----  When we first moved to the country, I started to talk to the farmers and heard all the negatives about the weather, and Gratitude nearly left me.  So I pulled myself into gear and remembered the verse we read, …

PP   “Give thanks in all circumstances.”

If it wasn’t for the weather, I think that many farmers wouldn’t know how to start a conversation.  -----

-----   The sun was starting to rise above the horizon and it was warm.  I thanked Gratitude that the sun is warm and began to wonder how it would be without the sun.  It would certainly be cold.

In Revelation 16:10, the Bible says there’s a time coming when the sun won’t shine and everything will be in darkness and it will get cold and it says that the unrepentant people will “gnaw their tongues because of the pain”.  ---   I am so grateful for the warmth of the sun.

As the sun began to rise, I headed off on my jog.  I generally start off walking for a little while while I talk to God.  I thank Him for a great day and ask Him to care for me so that I won’t break a bone or something if I happen to trip and fall.

Some time ago, I was running through the bush and tripped on a little tree stump and down I went.  I came down in some sand and I thanked God that it was soft and I didn’t hurt myself.  I picked up my little tape recorder and I blew the sand out and it still worked.  I was so grateful for that too.

I started jogging nearly 60 years ago when I lived in Brisbane.  I used to jog past Boggo Road Jail at night and the watchman would walk around the top of the wall with his rifle.  Every time I ran past in the dark I’d hope he wouldn’t think I was an escaped prisoner and shoot me in the legs so I couldn’t run.  I was so grateful that I had two legs and some health.  Some people can’t even walk, let along jog. --  I always try to take Gratitude with me when I go places.  Actually he’s not pleased when I don’t take him. ----

----   I read a story about a man who supposedly found an old farm shed where Satan kept his seeds ready to be sown in the human heart.  He found that the seeds of …

PP1   Discouragement

… were more numerous than the others and he learned that these seeds of discouragement could be made to grow almost anywhere.  But when Satan was questioned, he reluctantly admitted that there was one place in which he could never get them to thrive.  --  “And where is that?” asked the man.  …

PP2   Satan sadly replied … 

       “In the heart of a grateful person.”

------    Friends, we need to take gratitude with us wherever we go.

PP    1 Thessalonians 5:18  “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you …”

Gratitude helps us to dwell on the positives in life instead of the negatives.  Gratitude encourages us to sing that old song …

PP   Count your blessings.

        Name them one by one.

      Think of all the things that God has done.

When I got back from my jog, I headed for the shower.  Actually, I don’t know whether I should says this, but I even took Gratitude into the shower with me.  Actually he seemed to enjoy the hot clean water.  He reminded me that I was so blessed having nice hot water when some people have hardly enough water to drink let along extra to wash themselves with.

After getting dressed, I sat down to a nice healthy breakfast that Delphine had prepared.  It included some fruit off our own fruit trees and some fresh homemade toast covered with our own fresh olive oil.

We gave thanks for our food and when we opened our eyes, I looked across to Gratitude and …

PP1   I had the feeling he wouldn’t have minded if we’d spent a bit more time giving thanks to God than we did.

PP2    When I got in the car to go to work, I was surprised to see Gratitude standing there waiting to be let in.

I asked him what he was up to, and he said he wanted to stay with me all-day-long.

“All day?” I said.

“All day,” he responded.

He said my day would go a whole lot better if he stayed with me all day long.  Well, things certainly hadn’t gone badly with him being around.  So I decided to let him come. 

When we stopped the car in town, we saw a lady trip and fall, dropping her groceries everywhere.  A young teenager beat me to her side and helped her up.  He made sure she was alright and collected up her things.  Just a simple act of kindness but gratitude and I enjoyed what we saw.  Life’s not all bad.  There are still good people out there.

I had to call a man for a quote for a suspended ceiling in our new office.  I asked Bernie how he was going.  He said, “I’m OK Ray, but I’ve just had some bad news. I’ve just found out that I’ve got liver cancer and it’s entangled around some big veins and they can’t cut it out.  I’ve only got a few months left.”

I asked Bernie how he felt about that.  He told me he’d had a good life, travelled through nearly every city and town in the eastern states and he was grateful for a good life. ----

-----   Sometimes when you’re visiting a person who’s dying from cancer you think you should leave Gratitude at home because he wouldn’t understand.

You go to visit someone dying in the hospital and you get out of your car and quickly lock the door so Gratitude can’t get out.  After all, you grumble to yourself, what would he know about cancer.  Terrible disease, taking the life away from a young man in his prime.  No room for gratitude in this situation!

You go into the sick man’s room – he seems to be sleeping.  A couple of days’ worth of whiskers stick out of his sunken cheeks.  The chemotherapy has left a few wisps of hair fanning out wildly against his pillow.  ----   What do you say to a man in this situation?  You half hope he’s too drugged to waken.  Gratitude would be right out of place in here. ----

-----   The man’s eyes open and they’re amazingly bright – so much more alive than the rest of his body.  He says he wouldn’t know how he would have got through the last few months without the help of God.  “I’m so grateful,” he says.  “I don’t know what the future holds for me.  It doesn’t look good.  But I know that whatever happens, it will be alright because I’m in God’s hands.”

When I got back to the car, I had to apologise to Gratitude.  I really thought he’d be right out of place in amongst that sort of sickness but I was wrong.

As I drove home, my mind wandered to thinking about different sick people I knew, and I thought about people who’ve lost their loved ones to accidents and all sorts of things, -- and I started to get a bit angry.

“Where was God anyway?  How can God let this happen?  What kind of a God is He?”

Then somehow my mind went back to a little grandson of mine who was busy at work with his plastic bucket down on the beach.  He was transferring the water of the ocean into the little hole he had dug in the sand and I smiled at his ambitious plans.  ---  And then Gratitude asked me if that reminded me of anyone.

I said, “What do you mean?”

“Well, there he is!  He thinks he can transfer the mighty sea into that little hole in the sand.  Do you think you can contain the thoughts of Almighty God in your little mind?”

I didn’t have too much to say to that.  So I didn’t speak for some time.  I wasn’t in a very good mood, but I think Gratitude was right.

When I got home, I thought about that verse again, …

PP1   “Give thanks in all circumstances.”

I thought, …

PP2   “It – is – true!  If we get around with an attitude of gratitude then things certainly do go a lot better.”

----   Then I thought about Dr Martin Luther King Snr.  He said his mother had told him to …

PP   “Always thank God for what is left.”

And that was something to think about:  if you’ve got enough breath left to complain, you have something left.”  You have breath!  And that’s not something to complain about – that’s something to be grateful for.  It’s a good thought isn’t it.   -----

----- Years later, in the Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, Dr King Snr. stood in his pulpit.  By this time, he had lost his two sons, and his beloved wife had been shot to death right before his eyes at the organ in that very church.  ------   Guess what the old man was saying?  “Thank God for what’s left.”  There’s always enough left in life to make it worth living.

I stared blankly out into the room.  I tried to imagine old father King getting up in that big pulpit at Ebenezer Church, telling his congregation, “Thank God for what is left.”

------    Then I felt him back with me again.  I knew I was no longer alone.  Gratitude had once again joined me.  When I looked up, I saw him smiling.  He motioned to me, and said, “Follow me.”  So I did.  He took me outside.

He said, “What do you see?”

“What do you mean?  It’s dark out here.  You can’t see in the darkness.  It’s night.”

PP    “Look up,” he said, “Look up.”

PP1   (Starry night photo)

I lifted my eyes, and there they were:  a billion dancing pinpoints of light.

PP2       Gratitude whispered in my ear, 

PP3     “A hundred billion in our galaxy;  

             and a hundred billion galaxies.”

Then I knew he was a friend for the dark times in our lives too --  

a good companion, a very good companion.
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PP   I want us to stand and sing again … ‘Count Your Blessings’

PP   Click on photo to play song

While we’re standing, I’d like to pray.

Lord, please bless each one of us … with the gift of GRATITUDE as

we journey together towards the Golden City.

Thank you Lord, in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

PP Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message, then please take time now to send it on to your friends.