Meditation:
 How easy it is to get caught up in the vicious cycle of negativity. We are surrounded every day by messages reminding us of what we don’t have and need to make our lives perfect, it’s called advertising.
Hearing those messages, even subconciously, pulls us into focusing on what we don’t have, who we are not but would like to be, what’s missing in our lives. It’s easy then to begin to feel bad about ourselves and everything in our lives.
What’s the antidote? Thankfulness. Gratitude. When we’re in that cycle of negativity, we sometimes have a hard time remembering what it is we have to be thankful for.
So the Psalmist reminds us. “Remember the wonderful works God has done, God’s miracles, and the judgments God has uttered.”
And then the Psalmist goes on to list them: God chose Abraham and his family to be a blessing in the world; God remembers God’s covenant with us and all of creation; God sent Joseph ahead of Israel into Egypt to provide food for them during the famine; God set the people free from slavery through Moses by mighty deeds.
Verse 42 says, “For God remembered the holy promise, and Abraham God’s servant.” I think that means that there is so much more that we could add to this list of things to be thankful for.
We could add all the ways God was faithful to the people of Israel, including sending kings and prophets. We could add the Incarnation, Jesus, God’s Word made flesh. We could add his life, death and resurrection. And we could add all the ways that God has been faithful to our nation, our world and to each one of us individually. When you start to remember, you open the floodgates of memory and of gratitude.
So next time you get caught up in the vicious cycle of negativity, of the “have nots”, remember all with which God has richly blessed you and all God’s people and follow the words of the Psalm: “O give thanks to the Lord, call on God’s name, make known God’s deeds among the peoples.” |
