Ingratitude

 

“Back in 1988, a Polish railway worker named Jan Grzebski was hit by a train. He lived ... but only barely. For the next 19 years (until the year 2007), Grzebski was in a coma. He awoke in 2007 to a whole new world. Nineteen years earlier, Poland was a communist state. Grzebski noted that back then meat was rationed and there were huge lines at nearly every gas station. And, "there was only tea and vinegar in the shops." But 19 years later, he awoke to a free nation where he said there were "people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."

“But something puzzled him. "What amazes me is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and yet they never stop moaning." These people had freedom, and food and wealth greater than Poland had had for decades ... and yet Grzebski woke from his coma to find that ALL they seemed to want to do was grumble! If you don’t get into the habit of thanking God for what you DO have, you’ll soon become ungrateful because of what you DON’T have” (Jeff Strite, sermoncentral.com).

While I would never wish a coma of nearly two decades on anyone, it certainly would provide a unique perspective, wouldn’t it?  The gradual but relentless progress of time can have a numbing effect on gratefulness.  Our focus on the everyday grind of life often causes us to miss the big picture.

If a 19 year stretch suddenly disappeared from our life experience, would we be more grateful for what remained?  Likely so.  My guess is that things would come into sharper focus.  Like Mr. Grzebski, we might become more cognizant of how ingratitude can seep into our lives when we lose sight of where we have been and how we arrived at where we are at currently.

“Ingratitude is a crime more despicable than revenge, which is only returning evil for evil, while ingratitude returns evil for good” (William George Jordan).

 

God loves you!

Mike