“Gratitude and Generosity”
On Sunday, we read Jesus’ parable in Matthew about the laborers in the vineyard. There were some who worked all day, others who started working around 9 a.m., others around noon, others around 3 p.m. and even some around 5 p.m. At 6 p.m., the owner of the vineyard first paid the workers who started last—and he gave them a full day’s wage. Obviously, those who worked all day expected a lot more than those who worked only an hour, but they got the exact same amount; and that amount was just enough to feed their families for one day. So those workers complained. Of course, we can resonate with them because, if we were in their shoes, we would want more than those who worked only an hour. To pay everyone the same just isn’t fair!
We can probably all think of times in our lives when life has not been fair and we have complained about it. (And, frankly, there are times when we should complain, or at least, make very clear requests, when a person or government is being unjust or greedy and thereby hurting innocent people.) But, for all the things we cannot or need not change, how do we move from complaint to generosity? It is only through gratitude that we can live generous lives. When we consider all of our blessings, they far outweigh the “unfairness” we feel.
I shared with the congregation about a car accident I was in nineteen years ago. I was on my way one morning to the church office where I worked when a man driving an uninsured truck without a driver’s license slammed into the back of my small sedan at 60 miles per hour while I was stopped at a red light (as were the other five cars in front of me). I was unconscious and suffered injuries all over my body, and spent the next 5 months in physical therapy 2-3 times a week, with the doctors and physical therapists telling me that I would have to learn to live with pain for the rest of my life. Let me just tell you that it was an easy place to feel sorry for myself and complain that life is unfair. Yet, I’ll never forget my attorney at the time telling me, “Alan, you don’t know how lucky you are to be alive. I’ve never represented someone with that kind of damage done to a car when there wasn’t a wrongful death suit. I guess someone up there still has something for you to do.”
I decided then that I would focus on my blessings rather than the “unfairness” in my life. To live each day with minimal pain and be able to spend it with people I love, to be able to see and experience beauty and grace all around me, to sense the Divine presence: these things fill me with gratitude and make me want to share with others. This is what it means to follow Jesus for me. I know I don’t do it perfectly (far from it!), but I hope we will all consider our blessings and consider how we might share them with gratitude in our hearts.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
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“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
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