The New Realm: Cultivating a Thankful Heart.

– Josephine Olakanye

October came and went away with lots of ups and downs, we came through at the end of it all and now we’re in November.

And if you’re reading this congratulations for making it.

The year itself has been very eventful, full of casualties, good news, attacks, blessings, near-death experiences, moments when it looks as if God is sleeping.

And times when we’re pretty sure that a particular incident may occur negatively, but God still came through for us, and many other relative moments since January.

As humans we’re fond of forgetting or even normalizing some of these miracles.

I will use myself as a case study in this instance. During church service on Sunday, we were asked to come out and testify as we all know this is a weekly occurrence in every Sunday service.

This particular Sunday service was very different, because one of my church pastors, (Pastor Lami) gave a very touching short sermon.

Pastor Lami sermon was about Christians praying fervently for somethings, and when God eventually answer us, we tend to normalize it as one of those things that God owe us… (As if God owes anything!).

The new realm: cultivating a thankful heart.

This sermon stuck a chord in me because I’m a typical average Christian who gives testimony in church probably every first Sunday of the month.

My testimony it’s always very vague and generic in terms of “I thank God for preserving my life and that of my family members till this month” type of testimony.

And from what I’ve been privileged to observe in the church generally, we all tend to give a very generic testimony most times when we’re forced or cajoled to testify.

And for those that do testify, they do that mostly because the testimony is either a major miracle, a surprise, a die moment breakthrough or deliverance, accident, job offers, new child or any other divine occurrence that can’t be ignored, waved aside, or forgotten in a hurry.

So, Pastor Lami’s very brief sermon stuck that chord in me, and I started to think, I ruminated about it, and I was like “Wow! Josephine, we’ve been an ingrate.”  – The new realm: cultivating a thankful heart.

I picked a queue number and gave my testimonies but then, despite doing so, I realized that I only testified about my big miracles, while ignoring the everyday miracles I’ve been enjoying and I’m still enjoying.

If we are denied the everyday “little” miracle we ignore, then there will be no need for the existence of the major miracles.

For instance, if the so-referred to as little miracle of life does not come to you in a day, what will be the essence of the so-termed big miracle of job employment or brand-new car coming through?

Someone once said that till you experience discomfort in any part of your body you will never appreciate the value of good health and that’s a very nice observation.

I meditated on these and I concluded that if we call ourselves Christians and we don’t know how to cultivate a thankful heart by appreciating both great and small things in our life, noting every tiny detail, and being incredibly appreciative of it, then we are probably sinning.

Even as humans if we render another person our help and such a person does not appreciate us to our liking, we won’t want to offer such a person another helping hand another day.

First off, none of us are in the same position we were in last year either health-wise, career-wise, financially, mentally, academically, spiritually, and so on.

The new realm: cultivating a thankful heart.

January came with its pressure and our plans for us to achieve much more than we did in the previous year.

February came with its surprises and in my case a very near-death experience I don’t think I will forget anytime soon.

March came and fortunately, it didn’t march on us, on its way to April.

Then April came and some people lost their lives to it.

May came and despite its challenges and difficulties, we came out unscratched.

June came and we were not lost in its chaos.

July came and God said we still have a long way ahead of us.

August came with loads of good news, and we received our shares.

September came and honestly, it feels like just yesterday.

October came with its share of inflations, price hikes, and all and here we still are, constantly on the verge of giving up but God keeps turning up for us.

Now we’re in November and although it looks brand new, before we realize it, we are celebrating Christmas and New Year crossover already.

You see, time flies but if not for God and the gift of life bestowed upon us from day to day we will be stuck in time.

When someone is dead such a person is stuck in time because they can’t see the day after and that’s the end of their life.

The new realm: cultivating a thankful heart.

In summary: Brethren in Christ let’s cultivate a thankful heart both to God and fellow men.

David was referred to as God’s favorite and if we’re familiar with his story we should know the reason why.

November is another new realm that will incredibly benefit us to take advantage of but before that, let’s meditate on the habit of cultivating a thankful heart.

We will examine other topics under the NEW REALM as the month proceeds.

May God help us all,

Amen.

The new realm: cultivating a thankful heart.