“Much Obliged, Lord” Dec. 3, 2021

By the time you read this, Thanksgiving will have come and gone. But, since it’s important to give thanks on more than one day a year, I thought I’d include this anecdote.  It’s from the author Fulton Oursler (who wrote “The Greatest Story Ever Told”). He once told of a woman who helped take care of him when he was a little boy. He said that every time she sat down to eat, she would bow her head and say, “Much obliged, Lord.” One day he asked her why she did this, since the food was there for her to enjoy whether she gave thanks or not. Her answer: “Sure, we get our vittles, but it makes everything taste better to be grateful. Looking for good things is a kind of game an old preacher taught me to play. Take this morning. I woke up and thought, What is there to give thanks for today? I couldn’t think of a thing. Then from the kitchen came the most delicious odor that ever tickled my nose. Coffee. ‘Much obliged for the coffee,’ I said, ‘and much obliged, too, for the smell of it.'”

Years later Oursler stood at that woman’s bedside as she lay dying. He wondered if, in her pain, she could still find something to be grateful for. Then he saw her look up and, noticing the people gathered around her, she folded her hands and said, “Much obliged, Lord, for such fine friends.”

I admit I don’t always think to be grateful for the blessings around me; but it’s a goal of mine to be a little more intentional in the future. And while I have your attention, let me just say: “Much obliged…for the friends and members (and faithful readers) of UCN.”

peace and unrest,

tony