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Assorted

How to be happier

Keep long lists, and short accounts

*****

As I pad down the hallway to my home office, sometimes I’ll look down and remember that the laminate planking I’m walking on was laid down with the help of friends. I’m not the best with a hammer or saw, so while I did some of the sweating, my friends brought the skill. I was so very thankful at the time, and now whenever I remember it’s a warm feeling still.

As of late I’ve been remembering these friends more often because of a curious book. It’s about a guy who set out to personally thank every person involved in getting him his morning brew. There’s the barista, of course, but a farmer had to grow the beans, and then there’s all the people in between – it turns out there are an astonishing number of people involved in a simple cup of coffee. Who picks the blend? How many are involved in the actual roasting? Someone had to design the lid (there’s quite some engineering to it), and then there’s the coffee cup sleeve – there wasn’t always a sleeve – and when we remember that coffee is about 1 percent beans and 99 percent water, then there’s a whole municipal water department to thank too. And who makes the pipes that carry the water? We haven’t even gotten into the boats and trucks involved and all the crews who man and make them.

A long list to be thankful for

This guy wanted to personally thank everyone involved but quickly realized that might amount to millions. So he narrowed it down to the one thousand most directly involved.

G.K. Chesterton said that, “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude,” and this book was an eye-opener for just how many blessings I’ve been taking for granted. If thousands – millions – are involved in making a cup of coffee, how many could I thank for everything I find even on my short journey from bed to shower each morning? How many designers, engineers, miners, and factory workers were involved in making the Kindle that wakes us up each morning? And what about our bedding, the bedroom carpet, bathroom tiles and that long-shower necessity, our tankless water heater? I normally clomp past it all, but I could choose to start each day just looking around in amazement. As Chesterton reminds us, “gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

The author of this book is a sometimes-blasphemous atheist (which is why I’m not sharing his name - I don’t want to promote him) but even as an atheist he recognizes that his disposition to grumpy ingratitude isn’t good… for him.

“…gratitude is the single-best predictor of well-being and good relationships, beating out twenty-four other impressive traits such as hope, love, and creativity. As the Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast says, ‘Happiness does not lead to gratitude. Gratitude leads to happiness.’”

But why is thankfulness next to joyfulness? He doesn’t seem to know, but we do. God created us to glorify Him and then gave us innumerable reasons to do just that. And because He loves us, He so fashioned mankind that when we do what we were made to do, it is good for us. And He’s so gracious that even when we do a half measure, thanking the people around us, but forgetting the God Who made us, it is good for us still.

Sometimes we need a Jordan Peterson or Elon Musk – someone outside the Church – to remind us of what we have, and what unbelievers don’t. I was struck by that here, when this author shared,

“…I’ll occasionally start a meal by thanking a handful of people who helped get our food to the plate. I’ll say, ‘Thank you to the farmer who grew the carrots, to the truck driver who hauled them, to the cashier at Gristedes grocery story who rang me up.’”

This fellow is “praying” to people he knows will never hear him because he feels such a need to express gratitude. To quote Chesterton again, “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” When I look around the dinner table at the food that’s there once again, and the family gathered around, and when I really stop to think of all I’ve been given here, my heart can’t help but swell, but now there’s another blessing I can bring to my giving, loving Father – I can thank God that I can thank God!

Keeping short accounts

But if Christians have so much to be thankful for, why aren’t we more joyful? Why am I too often grumpy, sullen, and short to the people God has gifted me?

Part of it is that we take so much for granted. We easily forget what we have, so there’s something to keeping a thankful journal. Around Thanksgiving each year my wife gets some notecards and encourages us each day to draw something we’re grateful for, and then we put the cards up on the hallway wall. It’s quite the display by month’s end.

But even more of it is taking for granted the biggest gift we’ve been given: forgiveness.

In his booklet How to Maintain Joy in Your Life, Jim Wilson shares how, upon his conversion, he experienced joy liked he’d never had chasing after the world’s substitutes. But as this Navy midshipman set out on his Christian journey, he found that joy diminishing. And it continued diminishing for the next three years. Sitting in the stateroom of an American destroyer stationed in the Sea of Japan, he was struck that for the 3 years since his conversion he hadn’t really been confessing his sins. Oh, sure, he’d confessed some sins, but there were many he hadn’t taken to God for all sorts of reasons. When he confessed his sins, God forgave him, and once again he started feeling that same joy.

Guilt is a weight. But, thanks to Jesus, it’s one we don’t have to carry. Guilt is also God’s way of getting our attention. As it says in Hebrews 12:11:

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Jim Wilson was trained by that discipline, but like the rest of us, he was a slow learner.

“I would again disobey, get disciplined, and lose my joy. This time, instead of not confessing, I would confess after a while… ten hours, a week, 2 weeks.”

Eventually he realized that he didn’t have to wait to confess his sins – he could “keep short accounts.” Then, instead of a series of ups when he was forgiven, and downs when he wouldn’t go to God (or at least not yet), he started to experience ongoing joy.

“Sometimes I went for a while before confessing, but generally I would confess right away or within a couple of hours. I’m not saying I have not sinned in those years…. But I have a low tolerance for discipline. I do not like it. As long as I am unrepentant, the discipline stays on me, the hand of the Lord is heavy. I can remove the discipline of the Lord by repenting now.”

For those of us who’d prefer to stay miserable, he concludes his booklet with a list of what you can do instead of confessing your sin. You can justify, excuse, or hide it. You can blame someone else, procrastinate, or stand on pride. A favorite for many is “generalization,” where you readily admit “mistakes were made” without really getting into the dirt of what you did. But tricking yourself doesn’t trick God, and you can’t enjoy Him if you are hiding from Him.

Conclusion

If you want to be happier, it isn’t complicated.

Open your eyes wide, and see the world as it really is. There are troubles, but then there is God, and He continues to bless us beyond any measuring. And the biggest of those blessings is that we can know for certain – we can count on Him – that when we come to our Father with our sins, He will always and forever forgive.

That’s got me a little verklempt but I can assure you, they are happy tears.



News

Saturday Selections – Jan. 11, 2025

Music as the fingerprints of God (6 min)

George Steiner here is lecturing on the wonder of music and is not trying to argue that music points us to God. But he does believe it points us beyond materialism – our response to music shows that we are more than what we are made of.

" speaks to us that there is something else which, paradoxically, belongs to us profoundly but somehow touches on a universal meaning and possibility that we are not only an electrochemical and neuro-physiological assemblage; that there is more in consciousness than electronic wiring."

Evolution can't explain eggs

This is a bit of a technical one, but even if you get only the gist, you'll understand just how amazing the seemingly simplest things around us really are. It's only because we take God's engineering for granted that we can overlook the wonder that is an egg shell.

Evolution has to explain how they could come to be in some step-by-step evolutionary process? As if.

Trudeau is gone, so who is going to replace him?

The Liberals are about to run a leadership campaign, but have this worry:

"One of the key concerns that is out there is that the party could be prone to something approaching a takeover, or could be prone to a lot of people who don't give a hoot about the Liberal party who might be termed single-interest activists signing up and having a very real impact on the selection of our next leader."

Is anyone plotting a pro-life takeover? Should we be?

Abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide in 2024. And it wasn't even close.

45 million unborn babies were aborted last year – so relayed Jonathon Van Maren. That number is more than the population of all of Canada.

In the US abortion accounts for 60% of all African American deaths.

To put this number in a different context, COVID killed approximately 7 million in total over 4 years and in response we shut down the world. Six times more die each year from abortion and no notice is paid.

Who will stand up for the unborn? Will you? Will any politician? Will you vote for a politician who won't?

The danger of being a sermon critic

As Tim Challies explains, if you focus on what you think should have been there, you run the risk of missing the fruit that is there.

Amazing information packed inside you (12 min)

This video makes the point your DNA coding is more incredible than even the most complicated computer code, but it also kind of reduces us to just that information.... as if we could make a human if we only managed this same level of programming. So, as you watch, recall that we are more than our matter, being both body and an immaterial, eternal soul.

 


Today's Devotional

January 15 - The Lordship of Christ

“Serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God’s royal son.” - Psalm 2:11-12

Scripture reading: Psalm 2:1-12

Today it is popular to speak of Jesus' love, of His example, of His concern for the suffering and needy. In orthodox, evangelical circles it is popular to speak of Jesus' sacrifice for our salvation. All these aspects of Jesus' ministry are >

Today's Manna Podcast

Manna Podcast banner: Manna Daily Scripture Meditations and open Bible with jar logo

Jesus is the only Name: Acts

Serving #723 of Manna, prepared by William Den Hollander, is called "Jesus is the only Name" (Acts).

















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Book Reviews, Children’s picture books

Saint George and the Dragon

retold by Margaret Hodges illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman 1990 / 32 pages There are a lot of "powder-puff" stories for the pre-K set – stories where everyone is nice, they do nice things, and a nice time is had by all.I'm all for niceness, but there is a certain lack of drama to these stories. And after reading one after another of them to my three-year-old I noticed she was having a hard time dealing with stories that included disagreements, disappointment, or suspense. Anything that wasn't the nicest of nice was becoming scary to her. Steps needed to be taken to rectify this situation, and what better approach than to tell her stories of valor, self-sacrifice, and dragons! Admittedly, the first go-around wasn't a success. With no dragon books at hand I made up a story about daddy fighting a dragon in defense of my daughters, and then getting eaten by the fierce beast! Now, I knew this dramatic turn would push my little one's limits, but I was going to quickly follow it with my climactic reemergence, sword in hand, out of the belly of the now-dead dragon. A fantastic ending, if I do say so myself. But, alas, my daughter wasn't around to hear it...she had already fled the room. For my second go, I decided to turn to the experts and get an actual book, one of the very best dragon-fighting stories ever crafted: Saint George and the Dragon. In this account, taken from Edmund Spenser's classic Faerie Queene, the brave Red Knight is asked by Princess Una to come save her land from a dreadful dragon. And come he does, along with his dwarf companion. The battle that then commences is beyond epic. The fearsome dragon has "scales of brass fitted so closely that no sword or spear could pierce them," leaving the Red Knight no opportunity to slice into him. It is only "the strength of the blow" that gives the dragon pause. The first day's battle ends when the Red Knight's thrust glances off the dragon's neck, but pierces its left wing. In fury, the beast throws the knight and his horse to the ground and then bellows "...the like was never heard before - and from his body, like a wide devouring oven, sent a flame of fire that scorched the knight's face and heated his armor red-hot." The knight falls, and the dragon thinks he has won. But that was just Round 1! The spot where the knight fell, it so happens, was an ancient spring which cools his armor and restores his strength. So much so that the next morning he was ready to do battle again. Two more rounds follow, with the dragon losing a paw, and a length of tail before ultimately succumbing to the Red Knight in Round 3. My daughter loved it! She needed some reassurance midway through the battle that the knight was going to win, and I should also note I didn't give it as dramatic a reading as I could have - vocally I tamped down on the tension. But there was still plenty of suspense, loads of actions, and a full-on disagreement between knight and dragon. And my daughter handled it all. So why should little kids be exposed to drama? Because stories, in addition to being a source of entertainment, can also serve as a means of education. We don't live in a powderpuff world – there are dragons that need slaying. What's more, Christians need to teach their children that the fiercest dragons out there can be and must be slain. God calls us to battle, so while stories about tea parties and talking puppies have their place, at some point training must commence. We have to be properly prepared for disagreements, disappointments, drama and dragons. I learned something from my little girl when I saw how she could make it through the scary parts so long as she was assured it would all end well. Lots of scary stuff in life too, but what do we have to fear, knowing as we do that God has already won? So, to sum up, this is an epic tale, retold in the very best way imaginable – my English teaching brother assures me no one has done a better job than author Margaret Hodges. The illustrations are detailed, and while not gore-free (we do see blood spurting from the dragon's tail when it gets cut off) certainly not gory. Both children and adults will enjoy time just pondering the pictures - when people talk of visual feasts, this is what they mean. The only caution I can add is a bit comical - there is some small elfish immodesty in these pages, with the clearest example in the last picture here on the right. The elves are not part of the story (they are a part of the larger Edmund Spenser tale Faerie Queen, of which this is an extracted part)  but appear on the title page, and in small pictures that frame each page's big center image. The elves, in one or two instances, are entirely naked, but the pictures are so small as to be easy to miss, and the elves themselves so childlike as to be quite innocent-looking. Nothing lascivious here and I mention it only so that those who might find such pictures objectionable aren't surprised by them. Children from 3 or 4 to as old as 8 or 9 will love this story. And their dads will enjoy reading it to them. ...