"... I am trying to figure out how to say this to you. One of the greatest lessons I have ever learned in my life is this: That the people who are the most insistent that life pay off in some way are always the most deeply disappointed about life. They think that life is some grab- bag that they should be able to reach into and get everything that they want every time. There are other people who recognize that whatever it is that God has given them, that it is a good gift. Those are the people who are thankful in all circumstances, and the people who seem to get the greatest satisfaction, and the people who voice a prayer of goodness to God even when times aren’t the best. Life is all gift. What did any of us ever do to deserve this — to be born now, rather than to have been born in a primitive time when we had to struggle to eke out existence and most women died in their 30’s from some complication of childbirth? What did we do to be born now in this place instead of some place in the world where the population is so thick that children are thrown away? Nothing."

It's all a gift, and I am deeply grateful...

From my Community Thanksgiving Service message, 2005