August-Inspiration

A couple of weeks ago, I did my part in taking part in a micro Twitter meme.  A friend had spent a week Tweeting things for which she was thankful for.  A mutual friend then did the same, and I decided to do it as well.  (Another friend saw what I was doing and started doing the same.)  I would now like to repeat that list here, and make some comments and observations about the process as well.

1. The saving grace of Messiah Yeshua and the certainty, love and power of God Almighty.
2. Loving parents who have – a continue to – sacrificed so much for me.
3. Cape Town, the Cape of Good Hope, and its surroundings.
4. Borrie, die mooiste en liefste borriekat in die hele wye wêreld!
5. Trees in suburbia growing taller than the houses and the birds that play and live in them.
6. Sunday lunch, a guilty pleasure! Zzz…
7. The great weekend and fantastic friends!
8. Waking up refreshed and energised on a Monday morning.
9. Having access to health care services.
10. 10GB of free internet!
11. My health and that I can exercise.
12. Beautiful colours – which I can’t even dream of – at sunset!
13. Being weak, foolish and helpless, so that my strength and assurances only comes from God Almighty.
14. The view from my bedroom window (incl. the cats who like to play right outside my window).
15. Forgiveness through repentance made possible by the blood of Messiah Yeshua.
16. Being able to learn from the Word of God.
17. Free and Open Source Software.
18. Finding things that were lost.
19. Yet more beautiful Stellenbosch sunsets!
20. (Again) Great friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ.
21. That I am able to freely meet with fellow believers to study the Word of God without fear of persecution.
22. Food: even a poor student can feast like a king!
23. Having a good, competent veteran study leader to help me get through this thing.
24. Shabbat! Shabbat Shalom!
25. That, one-day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess: “Baruch haba, B’shem Adonai!”
26. Weekends & being able to sleep in when necessary.
27. Summa time!
28. My trip through Europe, even though it’s drawing to a close.

Unfortunately, I didn’t quite make seven days: I skipped a day completely (my bad) and developed a cold on the day which then should have been the seventh; having a cold tends to damped one’s outlook on things.  But, I suppose, number 29 can be having a cold, as it could have been something worse.  In fact, I can’t remember when last I’ve had a cold, because it’s always the flu or some infection or something else.  But generally I’ve been rather healthy this year: I had a good run while it lasted.

One thing which struck me, was how difficult it was to “keep the chin up”—to not complain—for a whole week.  Other people struggled with this, I’m sure.  And I’ll be the first one to say that I think people who are 100% happy 100% have some serious problems (looming).  We are all just human and experience the world as it is: sometimes good things come our way, sometimes bad things.  But then you have to make a decision: are you going to complain?  Not complaining (or, “offering a negative comment”) was difficult for me, I’ll admit.  Once again, complaining does have its place and time.  But I think that many—if not most—of us are prone to complaining too quickly.  To that end, the Internet is a great enabler.  It is your Twitter feed, after all, and you don’t control who reads it and who don’t, so if people don’t want to read about a complaint, tough luck then, right?  Unfortunately that isn’t the right way to think about it.  People don’t know what the demeanor of something you have written is going to be before they read it (unless, perhaps, the thing they are reading has a title or short introduction).  Also, some of the people who are following what you write, do so because they know you on some level and perhaps even care about them.  If your mood is negative, theirs will be affected as well.  Once again I would like to stress, however, that complaining isn’t inherently wrong: it can, in fact, have positive, healthy uses (as opposed to just keeping everything negative bottled up inside).  But frequency of complaining (or, at least, the temptation of it) struck me through this exercise of gratitude.  It is something that I am aware of in myself (sometimes) and which I know I need to work on.  (But I may be making progress: today I got a text message from a friend in which she said that I’m seeing the glass half-full, and that was without trying from my side.)

Some of the items in my list may seem a bit generic.  I am aware of that, and there are two reasons for this.  First off (and this is only my fault): I spent the vast majority of the week cooped up inside my flat trying to burn through free Internet cap on a slow line.  As a consequence, I had little real contact with the world and other people.  Secondly, I found genuine value in the small things.  Anyone can be happy with winning the lottery.  But where would I have been without my parent?  What if I didn’t have the securities which provides me regular food and entertainment?  What if I loose my sight one-day and not have memories of standing in silent awe in front of a beautiful sunset?  Yes, I am greatly blessed, and no amount of complaining and perceived wants can diminish that fact.  And this is something I constantly need to remind myself of: I become just a complacent as the next person.  I then need to stop and look at everything again.  It may seem like “looking for things to be thankful for”, but I really would have been miserable—if alive at all—if it weren’t for the hunderds and thousands of little things.

Perhaps one-day I’ll redo this exercise.  I found it refreshing, actually, as I looked at the world slightly differently for that week.  Go on, try it!