We as Americans are so very blessed. Our culture—or maybe even human nature—loves to find things to complain about. We as Christians are called to be counter cultural and we are born of the New Humanity in Christ (Rom 5:19; 2 Cor 5:17). We are to do all things without grumbling or complaining (Phil 2:14). In this area, I am the chief of sinners. I find things to complain about all day that I have no business complaining about. To remedy this, I live by another biblical command: be thankful in everything (1 Thess. 5:17). I would like to share with you all three blessings that I often meditate upon, and they automatically shift my mind from the awful to the awesome.

First, we live at a time in history where we have greater access to information than ever before. I read about the history of ancient education and how most people had very low literacy and access to education and resources. People would have to travel to different countries to find books that they wanted to copy, whereas we just have to tap on our phones a few times and any book will arrive at our house in days. Back then, it cost them a lot of money to produce those books, as they would have to pay for either the papyrus or the parchment as well as the ink or a scribe to copy it down for them. Now, any person can access more on the internet than the ancient mind could even imagine. We live in the best time in history for learning.

Second, we have far more than we need. Paul said we are to be content with food and clothing  (1 Tim 6:8). Jesus himself was an itinerant preacher who had very few possessions, not even a place to lay his head (Matt 8:20). Yet we have houses and mansions and boats and cars and gadgets and retirement accounts and timeshares and many other luxuries. We have far more clothes than we need, increased access to every food imaginable. We can control the temperature of almost any room we enter, provided that we have access to the thermostat.

Finally, we have access to better healthcare than most of the world and our treatment options are better than it has ever been in history. We can complain about the problem of cost—and yes, it is a problem—or we can be in awe that so many surgeries and such great doctors are even within the realm of possibility. Without the developments in healthcare, most people in our congregation would currently be in much more physical pain or dead.

Let us thank God every day for these blessings and more. We have more access to Scripture and the
resources to study it than ever before. We just need to take the time to do it. We have access to an abundance of material resources. We just need to learn to be thankful for what we already do have. We have access to the best health care professionals. We just need to take better care of ourselves, physically, mentally, and spiritually.