Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 172 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
3 Trails of Gratitude
Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 172 of our Trek. Yesterday we asked the question, “Are you affecting or infecting others that you impact?” Starting today and for the next week, we will hike on the trails of gratitude and thanksgiving through a series of inspirational stories for our trek of life. If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. While I enjoy all seasons of the year, fall seems to be extra special for me. It may be from growing up on an apple orchard when we would pick apples and make fresh apple cider and apple butter in the huge copper pot over an open fire. It may also be that the crisp fall air carries with it a fresh relief after the hot and humid days of summer.
Growing up in a family of 10 children with loving parents, for me fall also meant a huge Thanksgiving feast and then on to Christmas. Both holidays hold a very special meaning for me. As we trek through life, let us always be thankful for the bountiful blessings that we have. Let us also remember the birth of Christ who provides us with a rich and satisfying life on earth and eternal life.
Even if you do not live in the United States, where we celebrate Thanksgiving in November, take this time to share in our celebration of thanks and gratitude.
Let’s hike three trails of gratitude today, which we will title…
Gratitude Stories
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the following gratitude stories might be helpful to you. They all fall under the theme of 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” Of course, this verse doesn’t mean that everything that happens to us is God’s will. It’s not God’s will that we lose our jobs or get a diagnosis of cancer, or that our children make poor choices. What this verse does say is that it’s God’s will for us to be thankful people in all circumstances, even in hard times — especially in hard times.
Consider these three trails.
1. Robinson Crusoe
When Robinson Crusoe was wrecked on his lonely island, he drew two columns and listed the good and bad of his situation. He was cast on a desolate island, but he was still alive. He was divided from humanity, but he was not starving. He had no clothes, but he was in a warm climate and didn’t need them. He had no means of defense but saw no wild beasts which threatened him. He had no one to talk to, but the destroyed ship was near the shore and he could get out of it all the things necessary for his basic survival. He concluded, therefore, that no condition in the world was so miserable that one could not find something to be grateful for.
2. John Claypool, Part 1
When the late John Claypool lost his ten-year-old daughter to leukemia, gratitude was the only way he survived. He tells about that experience in his profound book, Tracks of a Fellow Struggler. After his daughter’s death, John walked down three different paths. The first path was to say, “Well, it was just God’s will. I have to accept it.” But that was not helpful. He could not believe that God willed ten-year-old girls to die of leukemia. A second path was to try to find an intellectual answer as to why this happened. He tried to make sense of it. But that didn’t work either. His daughter’s death didn’t make any sense. Finally, John walked the path of gratitude. He realized that life is a gift. We are not entitled to it. That we have any life at all is a pure gift and pure grace. Therefore, John chose to be thankful for the ten good years they had together rather than being consumed with resentment for the years he did not have with her. This path of gratitude wasn’t easy, but it was the only path which offered any help.
3. John Claypool, Part 2
Dr. John Claypool often spoke about the importance of choosing to be grateful. His personal experience allowed him to pen one of his many renditions of the story on Thanksgiving Day:
“Those of you who know a great deal about the past will undoubtedly agree with me that often history turns on slender hinges. What I mean is that events that seem at the time to be very small turn out to have tremendous consequences. This is certainly the case in the earliest days of our country’s formation.”
“The story begins in the summer of 1620 when one hundred twenty-five eager Christian folk set out from Southhampton, England, hoping to come to the new world and establish a faith community. They were on two leased ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell. But as they made their journey around the southern tip of England, the Speedwell developed problems so they both had to pull into Plymouth. There it was determined that the Speedwell was not able to cross the Atlantic. So twenty of the original group gave up and went back home. One hundred five crowded onto the Mayflower and set out well behind schedule hoping to get to the colony of Virginia in time enough to build some shelter before the winter came.”
“Navigation in the seventeenth century was a very primitive affair so it took them a lot longer to cross than they had expected, plus they were blown hundreds of miles off course without realizing it. They didn’t see land until the last part of November and what they saw was not Virginia at all but New England. They had hoped to get there before the winter set in but that was not the case. They went ashore. They were not able to build very substantial shelters and as a result disease began to sweep through the little community.”
“Before the spring came to break the terrible cold, exactly half of the original group that had set out from Plymouth were in unmarked graves because they had been devastated by so much disease. It was at that point that what was left of the crew of the Mayflower started to go back to England and the whole group wondered whether or not they should just give up and go back with them. But courage overcame despair and so they decided to stay. At that point their fortunes turned. The Indians were wonderfully hospitable. They shared with them their land, and they taught these pilgrims how to plant and how to cultivate. That summer they built very substantial housing, and they were able, when the harvest came in, to be amazed at the fertility of this new country.”
“These were religious folk, and so when the first anniversary of their being in the new world began to loom on the horizon, they wanted to devise some kind of ritual to acknowledge this significant event. Not surprisingly, the first suggestion was that they have a day of mourning. Every family had lost at least one person, many had lost several members of the family. They argued that the best way to commemorate their time there was to remember those who had sacrificed their lives.”
“There was another group that said, ‘Yes, we have lost a great deal, we have undergone great tragedy and grief, but we also have much to be thankful for. The Indians had been wonderful, the land here is wonderfully fertile, and we have survived. Why don’t we make that first anniversary a day of thanksgiving rather than a day of mourning?’ ”
“Well, the record is that a debate went back and forth between the mourning party and the Thanksgiving party. And as you know, because of a national holiday that we still recognize the last of November, it was the Thanksgiving party that actually prevailed. So the first anniversary of these hearty people was a day in which they expressed profound gratitude for all the things that were going for them.”
“Historians have said that that simple decision to opt for gratitude rather than mourning may have been the most significant factor in giving those people the energy and the courage to meet the challenges that were yet to come. Truth be told, whenever we face ambiguous situations with things going for us and things going against us, I would suggest that gratitude is the most creative thing we can possibly do because it puts us in touch with the positive energies that are at work in our lives. It gives us a way of having confidence, and it gives us a way of having hope for the days that lie ahead.”
As Thanksgiving approaches, take the time to reflect on all the blessings in your life. And, encourage your friends and family to the join us each day and come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy. Between now and Thanksgiving Day, we will focus on how wise it is to be thankful in a series of short, inspiring stories.
That will finish our podcast for today. Remember to listen to your daily dose of wisdom each day. Please share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.
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The journal for today’s Trek can be found at Wisdom-Trek.com. Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this Trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!