Stacy McCain on gratitude and faith:
People seeking grievances to grumble about and evidence to justify discouragement will always find it. Gloom and self-pity are always easier than gratitude and hope. We complain of what we don’t have and neglect to be thankful for the blessings all around us.
It is helpful at times to reflect back on all that God has done for us. There is an old hymn that includes the lyric, “Hither by Thy grace I’ve come.” And those words inspre me as I think back to that moment in August 1987 when I sat in my ‘84 Chevette in the parking lot of the Calhoun (Ga.) Times, praying that I would get the $275-a-week sports editor’s job for which I was about to interview.
The day before, I’d been driving a forklift in a warehouse on Fulton Industrial Boulevard in Atlanta when the call came informing me of this opportunity. “Great,” I said. “Just one question. . . . Where in the hell is Calhoun, Georgia?”
Well, it was there that I met and married my wife. Sometimes I recall the prayer I said in that parking lot and think, “Wow. I ought to pray more often.”
Even when we are not certain if our foot will fall on solid ground when we take our next step, it is good for us to be thankful that we are able to take that next step at all. This is a lesson I’m going to have to keep very close to me for at least the next month.
I found out yesterday that come the beginning of the year, my work situation will change radically. I won’t go into the whole story, but the upshot is that after December 30th, I won’t be doing what I am doing now. Either I will be in the same place doing something different or I will have to make a hard choice. The options in the latter case involve doing what I am doing now but driving an extra 70 or so miles a day and working rotating shifts or resigning my position and joining the ranks of the unemployed. If I’m presented with the choice, I will resign. I simply can’t afford the extra tank of gas every week the drive will require and working rotating shifts at this point in my life is simply out of the question. The irony here is that I transferred to my current workplace to escape shift work. It’s a funny world.
I probably won’t know for sure what will happen for another couple of weeks. My second-line supervisor is going to have to choose between me or the other dispatcher in my office and he will give us the requisite two-weeks’ notice. The upshot here is that the other dispatcher is old enough to retire and is vested in the retirement system, so she could drop her papers tomorrow. I’m not sue that she will, though, so I expect to be in limbo for the next couple of weeks.
I didn’t say any of that to get anyone’s pity (though, hey, you can help me a ton by doing all your Christmas shopping through my Amazon links
Tags: Amazon, Christmas, God, Life, Religion, Stacy McCain, Thanksgiving
