FOUR YEARS AGO WE MOVED to the Middle East to serve. That move equaled all our children leaping out of the nest and my not being able to work as a nurse. Ouch! Talk about an identity shift and new seasons.
Yet life has been far from dull with trying my hand at starting an organization serving refugees, and there are advantages to an empty nest in long days of ministry. However, deep in my heart there has been a small but low rumble of discontentment—a longing to be in the same country as my adulting children and to be able to work with patients in a clinical setting.
Recently I felt impressed that this lack of 100-percent contentment needed to be dealt with. I pulled up my bootstraps and tried to will myself to have a better attitude and not think about “other” possibilities. However, it just didn’t seem to be working. I asked God to change my desires and make them His. I wanted to be like Paul and say, “I have learned to be content in everything . . . whether without my children or working in my profession.”
JUST TWO THINGS
In the past I found that giving specific praise for the very thing I was struggling with had transformational results. So I decided to press into another season of giving thanks about these two situations. How does that work?
Simply, at the end of my devotional times I write down six things I am grateful for, two of them being specifically for my area of discontentment. On day 1, for example, I wrote that I was thankful “my children are thriving” and “I am growing in other areas.” Day 2: “You (God) are more concerned about my children than I am” and “I get to journey with amazing, resilient people.” Day 3: “my children were able to spend many years in another culture” and “You (God) choose the poor because of their rich faith.”
Honestly, some days I will stare at my paper for a long time before thinking of a unique word of gratitude. At some point I will stumble across some thought of gratitude that will shift my entire perspective. This may happen a few days into the specific gratitude journey, or it may be months into it. However, this change reaches deeper than my thinking and reasoning—it changes things at the soul and heart level.
I don’t want to just survive in this life journey; I want to thrive. Once again, pressing into gratitude is helping me to be content with my current situation.
I am reminded of Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you.” Give what? Money? Grace? The previous verses are all relational (don’t judge; give forgiveness). What if we are to give gratitude? The reward is this: “It will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
If you long for this kind of grateful heart, join me in pressing into gratitude in the hard things. I can truly testify that the measure I have received from this exercise has been a good measure, running over with a peace and contentment that passes all understanding.
