I have a few acquaintances with the uncanny ability to make lemons out of lemonade. They have good lives but you would never know it when one listens to them. I have unsuccessfully tried to get a few of them to count their blessings instead of making a list of catastrophes that could take their blessings away. I fear Christians are some of the worst at this. Week after week we are told a time of trouble is coming and that seems to justify not enjoying the now. If I remind them that they have a good job, they will remind me that it could be lost tomorrow. If I remind them they have a good IRA for their retirement, they remind me of 1929. It goes on and on. I sometimes doubt if they will enjoy heaven because their negative creativity will think of something that could go wrong.
Perhaps Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess had it right when he sang, “I got plenty of nothing and nothing is plenty for me… Folks with plenty of nothing got a lock on the door afraid somebody’s going to rob ‘e while they’re out (a) making more – what for?”
Paul wrote in Philippians 4, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice.”
When some people pray before eating they ask God to bless the food. I’m not sure what that means. Do they want the calories removed? A much better idea is to thank the Lord for what we have today.
One of literature’s most famous pessimists is Eeyore, the gloomy donkey in Winnie the Pooh. He even lives in a place called, “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place. I fear our churches are full of Eeyores. We should ban Eeyores from church. They are contagious.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2017
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