Thankful

I was involved in a bit of heated discussion with a fellow employee at work the other day.

I was on my lunch break and he walked into the kitchen. I don't quite remember how the conversation started. Typical office small talk I suppose. Something like, "Ah, work! Life sucks and then you die".

I replied, "It's not death that bothers me, it's the process of dying."

"Ya know Myrna", he says, "it doesn't matter. There's nothing after this. We live in hell and that's it."

I was taken aback. "Nah, there's gotta be more", I said, "But I'd rather believe and find out I'm wrong, that there's nothing in the end, rather than not believe and find out that there really is an eternity."

He insists, "Well in my opinion, we live in hell and after this, then MAYBE there's heaven." He sounds doubtful.

Well I had had enough. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It wasn't his opinion of no hereafter that I was pissed about. It was his attitude about his current life.

"I can't believe I'm hearing this." My voice elevated. "You have your health, a wife, TWO daughters, and you can honestly sit here and tell me that you live in HELL! Buddy, you have no idea what you're saying." I laugh a sardonic "ha!".

He persists so I state, "You just told me this morning that your house, if put on the market, is worth almost $400,000! Are you kidding me?! and you think you live in hell?"

UNBELIEVEABLE!!

I continue to rant and rave...

"People like you should take a trip to a war-torn country. Maybe you should go to Cambodia and tell the children there that are missing limbs because of mine fields that you live in hell over here in Canada. Maybe it wouldn't hurt for you to get a taste of what hell on earth is really like."

Unappreciative bastard! People in third world countries are thankful for everything they have even when they literally have nothing.

"Myrna," he says, "ever since I got robbed, my life is hell." And he proceeds to tell me how he can't trust anybody, he works 7 days a week for nothing, only for someone to come and take it all away.

I tell him I understand that he feels "robbed" but yet I remain unwaivered. "I still can't believe you, you are talking about material THINGS and you still have so much. You work EVERY day! You are rich, there are millions of people in the world who would think they were a king if they had what you have. And besides, it's just STUFF! What if something happened to your family? Don't you value them? I'm sorry, but if this is how you define hell then you have some serious problems."

I felt like I could burst into tears at any moment while talking to him. Tears for him, for being so ungrateful. I feel sad that one day he may know what hell is really like.

For where your treasure is, there may your heart be also.

I am thankful for this truth. I am thankful that we are able to "lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven". It's so sad that we have so many material possessions, we place worth in money, but yet we really do not understand the true value of life and all its virtues. God help us!

With that sad tale, I realize how much I have to be thankful for. On this Thanksgiving Holiday, I have so much:

Health
Happiness
A wonderful husband
A loving family
Supportive friends
A good job and stable income
A roof over my head (a NEW home, to boot)
Lots of clothes to wear
..etc, etc, etc.

Let us be ever thankful! It could all be taken away in a instant. And when it's all gone then where would we be? Would we still be thankful? I can honestly say that I would struggle. God help me to understand what a thankful heart is really all about.