Then after a few seconds, she said in almost a whisper while smiling gently, “Every time I look up at the sky here in Florida, I feel like I am on a vacation with God.”
As I was to later realize, this seemingly off-handed poignant comment did not come easily. It was the product of practicing a constant “discipline of appreciation.” Michaele eventually shared with me that on a number of occasions she actually felt quite lost and abandoned by God. Yet in retrospect she could see and appreciate that “God was telling me something and I wasn't listening, giving me something and I wasn’t receiving.”
Later, when we spoke again about the beautiful Florida evenings, she honed her spirituality of appreciation even further for me. She said, “I know the sunsets are for everyone. But as in observing other works of art, what each of us receives from them are personal gifts from God. They are uniquely ours.”
There is much we can receive from God if we have “eyes of appreciation.” But if, instead, we face life with a sense of entitlement we will approach life with demands, expectations and rules regarding what we need to be peaceful and joyful. This sense of entitlement is indeed one of the major enemies of a positive spiritual attitude. It hardens our souls and keeps us from appreciating the gifts we have been given. A demanding nature can even hurt the very people in our lives who may be offering these gifts to us.
How can we confront this danger? The answer to this question is deceptively simple. Receive, don't take. There’s plenty for you and me if only we have the eyes to see, the ears to hear and heart to feel the gifts and presence of God, all around and within us.
When a member of a leadership council of a wealthy U.S. church returned from a visit to an adopted sister church in Haiti, he was asked what was the most poignant experience he had. “There were so many,” he replied. Then after thinking for a bit, he said, “Maybe it was a question one little school girl asked. During a question and answer period between those of us from the U.S. and the people of this poor church in Haiti one girl asked matter-of-factly, “Do any of the children in your church’s school ever go to bed hungry?”
When I heard him share this, I simply let this question sink in — not just to shame me, though I deserved it; not to make me feel guilty, though heaven knows such a prophetic wake-up call is not out of place with me. I let this little child’s comment come into my heart so I could dispel a bit more of my sense of entitlement and increase my appreciation for life and for sharing what I could of it with others.
Gratefulness, having eyes of appreciation which open us up to see God’s reflection in so many new ways, is at the heart of a sound, strong, healthy spiritual attitude. If we remember this, our lives will begin to change instantly. We will have so much more even during those times when the world would have us think we are poor.
(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
