Nothing

Go ahead and pull up a chair, and your tea.  But I have to tell you that this time, I have…  nothing.

No great words of inspiration, no ‘eureka!’ discoveries, nothing profound.  Nothing.  Just a blank page in the midst of a crazy busy twenty-first century life.  I could talk about my kids, my grandson, my job, my church, my volunteer work.  But from here, there’s nothing new under the sun there, either.  Kids are living their lives, grandson is growing, job is stable, church is there, volunteer work is ordinary.  Nothing.

And yet…  in the midst of ‘nothing’, there’s really a tremendous blessing.  I was once talking to a friend about his church and their beautiful daily mass chapel.  He commented to me that he couldn’t remember the last time (over 10 years) he’d been ‘desperate enough to attend a 6am Mass’.  Wow.  My first reaction was “then you need to get your tail in there and say THANK YOU!”

How often do we take for granted the great blessings of health, provision, comfort and convenience we receive every minute?  How often do we take the time to stop and tell Him “Thank You” for all the blessings He gives?  Especially in the Western world?  We have transportation, friends, entertainment, gourmet food, designer clothes, electronic gidgets and gadgets galore.

Our country lives in relative peace – we don’t have machine gun fire and bombs dropping all the time.   We have some of the best medical care in the world, and it is easily accessible compared to most foreign countries.  We have clean water.  We are free to practice whatever form of religion we wish.  As a whole- and if you’re reading this, you are at least on a public computer at a library someplace- we have a pretty high standard of living.

With such abundant blessings, maybe we could take an extra hour out of our week and simply thank Him.

Maybe you don’t have a relationship with Him, maybe you don’t know how to talk to Him.  That’s okay.  Just talk to Him like you would any other friend.  No need for stilted ‘Thee’s and Thou’s”, flowery perfect prayers.  He wants reality.  He knows it all, anyway, but we’re designed to talk about stuff.  So, He’s there to listen.  Whether it’s “Thank You!” or “HELP!”  He’s there.   If you need help figuring out how to talk to Him, or want to talk to another person with experience, find a pastor or priest.  They’ll be happy to help you get started.

Remember when I said at the beginning of this post that I had nothing?  Never mind.  I have wonderful blessings.  I’ll talk to you later…  I need to go say “Thank You!”