A New Approach to Thankfulness

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1 Thessalonians 5:18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

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It’s dark. The power is out. There is no light. 

I live in West, Africa, where the power goes out frequently during rainy season. The other day it (and the internet along with it) went out in the middle of a quiz I was taking for (online) school. How do you explain that to a teacher? It’s like a missionary’s version of “the dog ate my paper.”

The laptop screen just darkened…I had better save this before the battery dies. I wonder if the electricity will be back on by dinner. It is the worst when it goes out right before a meal. You can’t open the fridge if you want things to stay as cold as possible until the power returns. Guess it’s a snack supper again.

No internet.

No food. (Technically)

No light.

But rain.

Pitter-pattering on the flat roof of our house. Tearing through the fields, howling in the wind. Dancing on the huts, swirling in the red, brown clay.

Lessons in the Rain

I love the rain.

The smell. The feeling. The way it thunders in the clouds.

But I like it best when the power goes out. Because that is God’s way of stopping us in our tracks, holding us where we are, and whispering ‘be still.’ 

Do I enjoy not being able to finish my schoolwork? Not really.

Do I want to eat popcorn, peanuts, and bananas for dinner again? Well…no.

Do I prefer it being pitch black in the house all day long with the aggravating knowledge that no matter how many times I flip the switch, the light will not turn back on? Not at all.

But—oh look at that the lights came back on!

Seriously, they did.

Welcome to the life of a missionary.

None of that was scripted or faked. The power really was out when I started writing this.

Anyway, back to my point…why do I love the rain?

Simple.

It reminds me of all the things that I have to be thankful for.

• My family has enough money to pay for internet, yet most families here don’t have enough money to send their kids to school. I think I can deal with having to wait on one quiz.
• There is food in our refrigerator, yet there are people in this village who don’t even know where their next meal will come from. I think I can be okay with popcorn, peanuts, and bananas for one more night.
• Whenever a room feels too dark, all I have to do is flip a switch, yet our West, African neighbors don’t even have running water in their houses. I think I can “suffer” one day without lights.

There is always something to be thankful for.

Identifying the “Difficult Things”

Before we moved to West, Africa the only time I experienced a power-outage was when a huge storm came through our area in Virginia. The power came back on forty minutes later.

Now that we’ve lived here for a year, I’ve experienced thirteen hours without electricity in one day. That’s a long time.

Believe me.

It was during hot season. There were no fans. No air conditioning. And it had just rained which meant the dreaded humidity that makes you feel so sticky that you can’t even breathe.

That’s missions for you.

It’s funny though, if you asked any of my missionary friends if they would want to trade their lives for another, they would tell you no. Because, honestly, this is normal to us. This is just how our life is.

Everything has its ups and downs, even the ‘ideal’ American lifestyle. Nothing will ever be perfect in life; our goal is simply to enjoy the process and learn from each experience.

So, what is something that has been hard for you lately?

Forty minutes ago, when the power went out, I was frustrated.

Frustrated because sometimes my mind reminds me that America doesn’t constantly lose power. Frustrated because sometimes I wish life could be “normal”. Frustrated because sometimes humans just want something to be frustrated about.

It’s true. We let things get to us so easily.

Learning From the Frustrations

As Americans we are great at spotting the most obvious things to be thankful for. Be honest. When you sat down with your family for Thanksgiving this year and shared three things you were thankful for, the top answers were family, friends, health, and memories.

Those are all good things. But what if they were randomly taken away? Have you practiced identifying what you are unthankful for and finding ways to appreciate those things even when it’s hard?

There is so much that I have learned and will continue to learn from simple things like power-outages. Sure, they’re annoying and inconvenient, but they don’t have to ruin my life. And the funny thing is…I’ve even learned to appreciate them.

My guess is that if you look a little closer at the things that bother you the most, you’ll find that they bother you because they hold a lesson that God has been trying to teach you.

Cause that’s how our God works.

He takes the little things and makes them big things.