As I have shared this goal with people through the years, I have often heard people give me some sound advice: don’t wish your life away. In many ways, that was exactly what I was doing, and what I have done often in life. When I was in High School I told myself that once I was in college life would be better. I would do more, be more, find my purpose, and then I’d be happy. During college I dropped and added classes, and often switched majors, because I thought that the next option would be better. A different path would make me happy.
When changing classes and majors didn’t lead to me feeling fulfilled, I looked at changing schools. I applied to another college and was certain that my life would improve when that change was made. As I look back on seasons of life, I can see now that I was thinking my life was always going to be better around the next corner, with the next choice, or in the next season. I was never content. Never grateful for where I was, and always thinking God would do something more when I made the next decision.
Maybe you struggle with this same way of thinking.
When I have __________________, then I’ll be happy.
When I have a good relationship, when I’m married, when we have kids, when the kids are out of the house - then I’ll be happy. Then life will be good. When I have a job, when I have a new job, when I get the next promotion, then I’ll be happy, Then I’ll feel like I’m fulfilling my destiny. When I have financial security and am out of debt, when the car is paid off, the school loans are gone, or the pay raise comes through, then I will be happy and can start living a better, more faith filled life.
Too often we find ourselves looking around the corner, to the next season, or for something more to make things better, and usually what we are looking for and what we want is more for ourselves. The more I have - the happier I will be. Advertising and social media tell us this all the time. They tell us that we can have it all, that we deserve it all, and that we can get it all if we will just get this one new thing. Buy your clothes here and life will be better. Have your meals delivered to your home, and life will be easier. Download this new app, and all your problems will be solved.
The subtle, underlying problem with all of this, however, is that it’s all about us. Our lives will be better if we have more. We will feel more fulfilled when we get more. A good life for us is found not with what we have now and where God has placed us but just around the corner, or with the next big thing. Jesus, however, was very clear when he said that life isn’t about getting more but giving more, it’s found with extravagant generosity. Life isn’t about being served but serving others, and it’s not found in indulging ourselves but when we deny ourselves. Jesus said that real life, a full and abundant life, will only come when we shift from being selfish to selfless, and part of being selfless is meeting God and living for God where we are today.
The Apostle Paul said, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Paul wasn’t talking to people about their future, or when they grow up, he was talking to people about their daily lives. Are you a student today? Great - be a student for God and allow God to use you, and fill you, and make the most of this moment in your life. You can serve God in your schools, and on your sports teams, and in band and chorus in ways that no one else can.
Are you a parent? Great - be a parent for God. Change diapers, go to the grocery store, make dinner, and help with homework and soccer practice like you were doing it all for Jesus. You are doing some of the most important work there is in the world and you don’t need anything more to do it well than the grace God has already given you. Make this most of this moment in time and glorify God in all you do.
Are you in a job you aren’t thrilled with? That’s ok - serve the people you work with as if you were serving Jesus. Let God be the light that shines into the darkness you feel around you. You don’t need a new job to feel fulfilled, God has a purpose for you right where you are. Live for him where you are and God will lead you to all that he has for you. That might be a new job, it might not, but your life will be more fulfilling.
Are you retired? Great (really great!) figure out each day how to do something to give God glory! I’ll be honest, this is not how I have looked at retirement. I looked at retirement as getting up each day and doing what I wanted - selfish - but it needs to be a lifestyle of asking ourselves how we can get up each day and give glory to God - being selfless - because that is how we need to live every day.
Whatever we do, we need to do it in a way that gives glory to God. Whatever season of life we are in right now is exactly where God has placed us and we need to live in a way that gives glory to God. Today is the day that the lord has made, today is the gift that God has given to us - so let us not just rejoice and be glad in it, but let us live in such a way that God is glorified in all that we do.
Instead of looking at some future reward we might find or get in life,
what if we looked at our work as the reward?
Instead of looking for some prize around the next corner, something better to come,
what if the prize was the process?
Instead of thinking we will be happy someday in the future when we have more,
what if we were grateful in the grind of today?
These are powerful statements that can shift our thinking and perspective about how we live each day. If each day is the reward and the prize, then each day can be filled with all that God has for us. If we can be grateful in the grind of life today then we may not need to look to the future for more. Being grateful for what we have today, and for where God has placed us today, and for who God has made us to be today, helps us see the purpose God has for us, and how we can give glory to God in all the daily routines and challenges we face. The apostle Paul had this kind of gratitude.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10a.
Paul knew that in many ways he could not be considered an equal to the other apostles. While they had spent their past walking with Jesus, Paul’s past was spent trying to kill those who had walked with Jesus. Paul knew his past wasn’t good and he could have constantly told himself that God could not use him because of it. Paul could have daily told himself he was no good and that something more needed to happen in him or to him if God was going to use him. Paul could have spent his life looking ahead for something more, but he didn’t. Paul said, I am who I am today because of the grace of God, so I will give thanks and I will live today for the glory of God.
I am who I am by the grace of God. Who are you today? Not who do you want to be tomorrow, that’s a worthy question at times, but who are we today? How has God’s grace helped make us who we are and have we thanked God for that grace? Where are we today? Where has God placed us? What opportunities has God given us? Have we thanked God for our personal and unique situation - even if it is not ideal or what we would want it to be? Are we being grateful in the grind of today? If we aren’t, then we will not be grateful when we move into the next season of life either. Gratitude has to start today.
We need to learn gratitude in the work of today, and gratitude is a practice we can cultivate. Every morning we can look ahead and give thanks for one opportunity we see in our day. Every evening we can look back and give thanks for one blessing we experienced. Every time we stop to eat or drink, we can give thanks for all the ways God has provided for us. Every time we get a text, call, note or message from a friend, we can give thanks for the people God has placed in our lives today. Gratitude is a simple practice of being aware of what we have in the grind of life and we can develop it. As gratitude grows in our hearts and lives, we begin to see that the reward in life isn’t in some future time or place but in the work God has given us today.
The prize is knowing that God is with us in the process. Gratitude helps us see that God is with us in the process. With each step we take, God is there, and God is faithful, and God will help us, and God will guide us to the next step. We don’t need anything more for a better life - life is the best because God is with us.
No matter what we are facing today, God is asking us to be grateful for who he has made us to be, how he has worked in our past, and what he has for us in this moment. We don’t need to wait for another season, a new boss, a better relationship, or more money to give thanks or to give God glory, we can do it today, but there are enemies to this way of life. Three enemies in particular, that work to undermine our gratitude for today: a soft pillow, a shiny toy, or a sweaty towel.
A soft pillow can be an enemy because it lures us to a life of comfort. A pillow calls us to a life that is easy, and many times what we strive for is a life of comfort and ease. We work hard so that in the future we can be comfortable and take it easy. A promotion, a new job, or a new boss will make life more comfortable for us, and when our job is easier - then life will be better. A soft pillow tells us a good life is only found when we are resting and at ease, but Jesus never promised a life of comfort or ease. In fact, Jesus said we find life when we take up a cross and live a life of service and sacrifice.
Following Jesus was not easy for any of his disciples. They left homes, and families, and jobs, and the comfort of their familiar lives and community to literally follow Jesus in his life of teaching and preaching. Peter, Andrew, James, and John may have worked hard as fishermen, but they had to leave that safe routine behind in order to follow Jesus. Following Jesus often means uncertainty, misunderstanding, and even persecution at times. It’s not always easy, but it is always rewarding and fulfilling.
If we are always looking for comfort and an easy life, we will never learn to give thanks in the difficult grind we often face, and we will always be longing for something more. It lures us to be selfish not selfless. A soft pillow can be an enemy of gratitude, and so can a shiny toy. New gadgets, new technology, new experiences come at us every day and they not only distract us, but they tell us that a better life will only be found when we have all that is new. When we become slaves to what’s new and trendy, we forget to give thanks for what we have.
Everyday there are new products, new clothes, new foods, new opportunities, and new experiences that bombard us and tell us that life will be better and we will be more fulfilled when we have this new thing. If we focus on what is new and what we don’t have and might want in life, we fail to give thanks for what we do have and what God is doing in us today. We cannot be distracted by what is new, but be focused on the gifts we have, and the one who has given them to us.
The third enemy of finding our true reward in the daily grind of life is a sweaty towel. Too often when things get difficult we are quick to throw in the towel. We give up. Digging ourselves out of debt is too hard so I’m not going to try anymore, I’ll just get another credit card. This relationship is too difficult, so I’m going to give up and start over with someone else. This job isn’t fulfilling anymore, so I’m going to quit and see what else might come along. Walking with Jesus and trying to get connected with a community of people who say they love Jesus is too difficult. People haven’t welcomed me or cared for me so I’m going to give up. Too often we simply throw in the towel.
Instead of throwing in the towel we need to pick it up, wipe off our sweat, and keep going. We need to persevere through the hard times, be patient when things aren’t going our way, and maybe take that same towel and be willing to serve those we would rather walk away from. If we honestly believe that we will find reward in the work, and the prize in the process of serving, then we don’t quit, we don’t throw in the towel, we use the towel to keep going.
The work we are doing today - whatever it is - is the reward when we know that we are exactly where God wants us. The process we are going through today, the struggles, the success, the joys and the sorrows is the prize because God is with us each and every step that we take. And when we give thanks for all that we have going on in the daily grind of life - we realize that God has made us who we are, given us what we have, and called us to live for him in this very situation. When we do this, it is no longer us that we are living for - but God. We have made the shift from selfish to selfless, and when we make that shift, when we are selfless, we find the life - the abundant life - the purpose filled life - the life of passion and joy - the life that God has for us.
Next Steps
Selfless - Grateful in the Grind
When I have ________________, then I'll be happy.
How has your life been shaped by this kind of thinking?
1. How might these questions reshape your thinking about life?
• What if the work is the reward?
• What if the process is the prize?
• What if I was grateful in the grind?
2. The enemies to this way of thinking, and of gratitude in our daily lives, is a soft pillow, a shiny toy, a sweaty towel.
• Where are you tempted to pursue only what is comfortable and easy? Give thanks that God is with you through the difficult situation you face today.
• In what ways are you a slave to new things? (technology, media, entertainment, clothes, cars, experiences…) Give thanks for what you have today.
• Where do you feel like giving up? What will it take for you to pick up the towel and keep going? Give thanks for the strength God gives you today and every day.
3. Practice gratitude in the daily grind of your life.
• Give thanks each morning for an opportunity you see in the day ahead.
• Give thanks each evening for a blessing you experienced during the day.
• Give thanks each time you stop to eat or drink.
• Thank God for all ways he provides for life, and sustains us every day.
