Admit it: blessings are real

         Years ago, someone said to me that if you continually find yourself in a room of, uh, malcontents, you might just want to examine yourself. You might just be the only malcontent in the room.

         I suspect we find ourselves there on occasion. We’ve tried to find joy in the work, and it didn’t work. We’ve tried to find Christmas joy, and it seems the lights aren’t as bright this or that year, and on and on.

         It’s that way for those of us who are never quite perfectly content.

         But there is a way.

         The other night I was flipping channels (can you still call it that?) and I came across a movie I have only seen bits and pieces of. I never saw it at the theater for we don’t go to R-rated movies, and I’ve never seen it from the beginning. The movie was Good Will Hunting. I actually have little knowledge of what the movie is actually about (other than reading about it), and I think that is my point this morning.

         Robin Williams’ character is talking to Matt Damon’s character (which actually he is doing every time I come across the movie for bits and pieces). He is talking about the fact Damon seems to have all the knowledge of the great painters, but he doesn’t know what it’s like to smell when you look up at the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He doesn’t know what it’s like to wake up to a woman you love and be genuinely happy.

         I was completely humbled at that statement.

         What right do we have to feel low when there is so very much out there – including that dear woman or dear man we love – to be happy, genuinely happy, about? Or the healthy children or grandchildren? Or the job we have that others can only wish on a star for.

         That doesn’t even include that which should make us so very, very happy in the first place. Christ died to save us. Isn’t that worth knowing? Isn’t that worth living into?

         King Solomon looked up one day and found everything to be in vain in his writings we call Ecclesiastes, “I know there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.”

         The question is, and has always been, what makes the people happy? I suspect it is living, truly living, for and with and maybe even through the Lord.

         Letting him direct, guide, nudge, love us is about the only way I know to practice happiness.

         As we head into what should be but often isn’t the happiest time of the year for some, let us never forget to feel as if we’ve been blessed.

         For the absolute truth is … WE HAVE BEEN. From that starry, starry night so long ago when angels breathed out a message of peace, we've been blessed. We've been blessed when things are stinky and blessed when things smell as roses. We've been blessed when the worst of the worst happens and blessed when the best of the best. We have been blessed. The sooner we see it, the easier life becomes. Don't wait for the blessing. Have faith in the blessing, in this life or the one to come.