Gratitude

It has been so long since I have taken time to write. Our church is celebrating 125 years of being in the Springfield community. In this day when we have difficulty remembering what we have done in the last 5 years, this is quite the accomplishment. I am honored to be the pastor of this church which has seen wars, depression, recession, dust bowls, a lunar landing, and so much in the history of the church. It has remained faithful during all that time. Sometimes it seems we worship modernity so much that we forget the traditions that have been the foundation of our lives. Sometimes I also feel that we can also dishonor those who have been part of the builder generation which has contributed to our freedoms and our beliefs.
As we were preparing to celebrate this Sunday, I preached on the passage in Luke about the ten lepers. When they asked for mercy, Jesus was merciful. Nine went to the temple as Jesus commanded. Only one who saw that he was cured came back praising God and Jesus. The twist of the story was that he was a foreigner, "a Samaritan." I was thinking about how we need to open our eyes to see the blessing that God has provided to us through Jesus Christ.
As I have had time to reflect, I also believe that we often take our past for granted. It seems that we often repeat our history and have difficulty remembering. We do not "see" what God in the presence of others in our past and in our present is doing or has done. We become so embroiled in our own individual lives that we fail as a community. One example that I read dealt with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize. One article in our paper mentioned that global warming or the continuing pollution of our world was not a major political concern among most people. Whether one believes in global warming or not, I would think that most of the people should become aware of the environmental impact our style of living is producing. We no longer have many rivers in the USA that are not polluted. Many of our cities have unsafe air to breathe. The number of recalls for contaminated food have risen. Yet we are not willing to sacrifice our lifestyle to help save our future. I would wonder how my generation would survive an economic depression that my parents lived through.
I want to open my eyes and to be in a state of gratitude for what God has provided in my life. And not be so concerned about owning a new car, a new house, or even making so much money that I would not know what to do with it. I pray that we, including myself, will open our eyes to appreciate the gift that God has given us in this world and in the people who live in it.