Poop Happens

Daily Gratitude Year 4-Day 355: Today...l am grateful that life is more about perspective than what actually happens. 

Poop Happens. (Thanks Melissa... using this twice today. I love it - and if you were not so far away, I know you would share your elf poop.)

This is on my "once a year" gratitude list. I save it for late in the year, because I like keeping the idea close and as a possibility. I keeps me humbled by it's truth every day. I am grateful perspective is a choice.

We can't choose what happens to us. We must choose our response to what happens to us. 

Yes - I said "choose" and I mean "choose". It is a great life secret. Finding gratitude in the midst of struggle is a choice. Poop happens. This world is not perfect. Life is followed by death.Celebrations and sorrows are part of the cycle on life's wild ride. 

No one can make us feel like a failure without our permission. 
No one can make us feel inferior without our permission. 
No one can make us feel dumb... without our permission. There are many kinds of "smart".

This season of Christmas and New Year events is one of mixing family, friends and even strangers.Yes, it has some challenges, but at the end of the day, the gift of being present, together and engaged (without technology if possible) is the best part of the season.

I love that board games and other table top fun bring us together.
In Mama Ina Mae's family - doing dishes after a meal was sister bonding (now, it's cousin bonding).
It isn't about a perfect meal... but the people gathered at the table. 
Perspective.

With the Nativity so real in my mind, I think again of Joseph and Mary who had to go with the flow... and trust that God would provide. He did. Life is not always what we expected or dreamed it would be but there is a richness in learning to embrace and savor the "enough". 

Jesus left heaven on a mission to be God with us... present and engaged. His was not the arrival expected by those looking for the Messiah. He fulfills the prophecies... but still... his arrival was a surprise. He didn't get the welcome one would think a king deserved. 

Life is full of the unexpected and the unthinkable. 

Remember when Jesus healed the lepers? 

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,who stood at a distance  and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” -Luke 17:11-19

Yes... only ONE returned to say thank you? "Where are the other nine?", Jesus asked. They received a healing and forgot the healer. So human. So like me, at times. I forget to say thank you. 

Lepers... and Samaritans were worthless in the eyes of so many. They were considered unclean and were unwanted by society. They were outcasts. Jesus changed their story... and nine out of ten never said "Thank you". 

What if was embraced the idea that it is ONLY by God's grace and Jesus blood that we don't get what we deserve? Max Lucado has written it in that framework. Think about it. We cannot be good and go to heaven. We have to know him and have that relationship change us. It changes everything. 

Feeling like life is unfair? Look to the cross. 
Feeling unimportant? Look to the manger. A baby change everything. 

Bitter because others have more? Look to the abundance in our "enough" that God grants us with "our daily bread". Do we graciously and joyfully accept what we are given? 

Do we even remotely begin to understand what Jesus to do? Can our human minds conceive a Lord who spares us from the consequences of our sins and failing?

“Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Good morning, Earworm! He is singing; "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled, Joyful all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies.With angelic hosts proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethelhem. Hark the Herald Angels Sing... Glory to the newborn King."

Reconciled. Propitiation. Paid in full! Debt free. Faith has made us well.

How can we not find joy? 

Today...l am grateful that life is more about perspective than what actually happens.