hey can we meet for coffee? is the text I get that morning. I haven’t seen him in a year, but I think, “Sure, why not?” He looks, different – a lot happier or something – and he tells me about a book he’s been reading… twice. Soul Cravings. The book says that God is Love. Could it be true?

“I really connected with this idea that God is love, but I don’t know what to do now.” He says with eyes lit. So I tell him my own story and how I’ve realized that God is Love and God is Creator and his signature is in creation. I tell him that in God’s creation, there is beauty and intentional design, which inspires our artwork. He is beauty.
“Wow, God is beauty?” The artistic side in him resonates with a God who creates beautiful things and is himself beautiful. So he cuts to the chase. “How do I get this God?” I decide to wait a bit – see how bad he wants it.

“Its available for the taking, man. Jesus is like a well, you just dip into his love.” Oh the suspense. His voice picks up slightly.

“How do I do that?” Getting closer now.

“The reality is that if you want it you just need to take it. Problem is, quite often our hands are full of other stuff. We gotta let go of little gods we might be holding onto that aren’t very satisfying. That way you can fully embrace God.” Now we are getting somewhere.

“Oh ok… ya, ya.” I can see the film rewinding in his mind as snapshots of his life flash before him – regrets, fears, idols – things he’d been holding onto. I think, now – a good opportunity to ask a simple question.

“You know we call this Christianity, eh. But do you know where Jesus fits in to all of this?” He thinks for a moment.
“No, I guess I’m sort of blind to that.” His words, not mine. I can’t believe his heart is in a place to admit this sort of thing. God is working.

“That’s true my friend, we’re all blinded by sin. But Jesus died for you so you could take the blinders off. You want to see God? Jesus died to forgive our sins so we could be friends with God.” Pause. I sip some coffee and probe. “What do you think of all that?”

“Hmm,” he ponders. Wrong things come to the surface in his mind. Blind things – obstacles in his friendship with God. “I think I need to go home. I need to thank God for a lot of things and ask forgiveness for a lot of things too.”
Fantastic. We pray. He leaves. I get on the bus and think about how good God is. The next morning I get another text: thanks for meeting with me. i found myself having a conversation with Jesus. talk soon man.

In our student days it is perhaps easier to remember our lack of money or things. It is easy to take a look around and be disappointed. As a student, the “lack of” in our lives can make it easier to want things even more, especially when we live in a media landscape saturated with invitations to desire items we can only wish for as a student. There is an entire industry designed to show us what we don’t have and make us want it enough to go out and buy it.

But the truth is that there is always going to be somebody who has something newer, bigger or shinier. Growing up a friend of mine had a great shirt. It said “He who dies with the most toys, still dies.”

We forget sometimes that even if we did earn a huge house or a six carat pink diamond ring, it wouldn’t last. You can’t take it with you.

You Might be Richer Than You Think

If you ate breakfast this morning you are better off than the 800 million people worldwide who will go hungry today. And don’t think that it’s just happening in Africa. In the United States 9 million people “frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day.” (Source: bread.org) If you eat three meals today, smile, you’re rich!

Choose to look a little closer at the world around you and you’ll find that you have a lot to be grateful for. I recently came across a website called The Global Rich List. It lets you type in your salary and then shows you where your wealth ranks on a global scale. The results are pretty eye opening. In the United States, in 1999, a family of four was considered “poor” if their income was $16 813/ year. If you put that figure into the Global Rich List, you’ll find that that puts poor Americans among the wealthiest 9% of the entire world. You may think of yourself as poor, but smile, you’re rich!

Changing Our Perspective

The Oxford Dictionary defines gratitude as “readiness to show appreciation for kindness and to return it.” Gratitude doesn’t mean that we see the world through rose coloured glasses, but rather that we choose to see the good things we have been blessed with.

We have a very skewed idea of what constitutes gratitude. Gratitude is not the same as being happy. Gratitude is taking an honest look at a situation and choosing to say “even in this there is a reason to hope”. Gratitude is the willingness to look for a reason to hope. There are going to be days when you can’t see anything to be grateful for. Life is not a musical or a Disney movie. But if you practice gratitude, you may find that even on the really, really hard days you can find something to hope for.

There is a lot to be grateful for. But even armed with this knowledge some days being grateful is hard work. There are days when you can look out of your window and practically trip over all of the things there are to be grateful for. And there are other days when you have to look really, really hard to find it.

Cultivating a grateful spirit is a lot like trying to build muscle, it take time, it takes work and for many of us, it doesn’t come naturally.

Practicing Gratitude

Gratitude is a lot like exercising — we know we should do it, we know we need to do it and that our lives will be better if we do, but we have a hard time fitting it into our day. How can you find time to be grateful? What would that look like?

Gandhi once said “we must be the change we want to see in the world.” Can we make it so that there is more to be thankful for? Yes, but it has to start with you. If you are looking for a way to put gratitude into practice, consider trying something from this list complied by Women Today writer Sadaf LaalDin:

• Love your family. (Does anyone need your forgiveness?)
• Invest time and energy in the people you love.
• Expand your borders — invite a neighbour for tea or coffee.
• Visit an elderly person and listen to their stories of the past.
• Write an encouraging note to someone feeling disheartened.
• Go grocery shopping for a family in need.
• Donate to your local women’s shelter.
• This month, write one letter as part of Amnesty International’s efforts to speak out against injustice (Visit www.amnesty.org./actnow/index.html for more information.)
• Decide how you can join the fight against AIDS.
• Know you have a unique purpose in the world. Believe you can and will make a difference.

Practicing gratitude can change the way you see everything. It can help you to be satisfied with what you have. It lets you enjoy the people and things in your life. Gratitude can show you that you do have enough to be able to help someone else. You can afford to be generous — you’re rich!

Around the holiday season, look for a place to donate — whether it’s a can of soup, or an hour of your time find a place to give back this year. The creators of the Global Rich List challenge their readers to donate one hour’s wages to a charitable cause. What could your one hour do?

Many soup kitchens put on Thanksgiving dinners that cost a few dollars a person, maybe your hour could buy lunch for a couple of people? Groups like Heifer International provide animals and training to developing nations. If you make $20/hr you could use one hour’s pay to buy chickens through Heifer International that will lay eggs to feed a family all year. Do you have 5 friends with $10? You could pool your resources and send trees that can make ravaged land fertile again. The possibilities are endless. Who’s world will your hour change?

If you are looking around your world and don’t see a lot to be grateful for, there is hope. You can have the peace that you are looking for; there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life.

Where can we find hope for peace? The hope for peace comes from an individual who lived a perfect life on earth. That person was Jesus Christ.

Hope for peace in the world, and hope for peace in your life (including making peace with yourself) is possible by finding peace with God through his son Jesus.