Real Hope: Our Lives God's StorySample

Start With... Thanks

It felt like a winter without sun. My little home just north of Dublin blanketed by a plume of burnt peat blocks.

Enjoying my new job in a new country, the personal loss I’d left behind in Australia seemed to be a safe distance away. Then without warning I woke up empty one morning. The shaky footings of my life collapsed and I felt lost. I stayed in bed for days.

I don’t know who called the softly spoken man of God to my home. I didn’t attend his church. I didn’t attend any church.

Sitting at the laminated kitchen table, neither of us said much that first day. He had mastered calm. Not a sombre, forced calm. A smiling tranquility. We drank a lot of black tea over the next few days. I don’t remember eating.

The winter sun and the priest coaxed me out for a walk along the break wall protecting the fishing fleet from the foaming Irish Sea.

‘My father was a fisherman. He was lost at sea when I was a boy. I don’t blame the sea. I don’t blame God. Both sustain me every day. Fish from the sea, hope from God. I thank Him for both every day.’ Pausing to allow the wind and waves to punctuate his thoughts, he focused on the horizon but spoke directly to me. ‘My son, when you don’t have anything else, start with thanks.’

I prayed for the first time in years that day. My words felt hollow, so I started with thanks.

Give thanks today.

Written by DWAYNE JEFFRIES