{"id":2878,"date":"2014-02-11T06:45:07","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T11:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2878"},"modified":"2014-02-11T06:45:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T11:45:07","slug":"oblivious-to-the-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2878","title":{"rendered":"oblivious to the blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/IMGP0487.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2879\" alt=\"IMGP0487\" src=\"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/IMGP0487.jpg\" width=\"3264\" height=\"2448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/IMGP0487.jpg 3264w, https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/IMGP0487-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/IMGP0487-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Tis rare we begin a post with a prayer, but I continue to be unable to shake the profound, contemporary relevance&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><i>Lord, forgive me for so often being forgetful of your goodness, for acting as if I deserve anything more or different than what I have received&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It persists in plaguing me that we don\u2019t live in a \u201chave\/have not\u201d society.\u00a0 We simply live amid the \u201chave not\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 Regardless of stuff, status, wealth, or wonder, we continually compare ourselves to others, focused on what we \u201chave not.\u201d\u00a0 We focus more on what we don\u2019t have, than on how each of us has been blessed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I understand the admirable ambition in being aware of what we don\u2019t have and working toward that goal; such ambition seems zapped, no less, when instead of embracing the process of attainment, the pursuit is exchanged for feelings of entitlement \u2014 feeling that stuff or status is <i>deserved.<\/i>\u00a0 The feeling only comes from a comparison of others&#8230; and its passion expands as we focus on the have not.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to Gregg Easterbrook\u2019s <i>The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse:<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Since 1960, real per-capita income has doubled.<\/li>\n<li>Over the past century, life expectancy has doubled.<\/li>\n<li>Since World War II, the average size of a new American home has doubled.<\/li>\n<li>Also, the average Westerner is more prosperous than 99.4% of everyone who\u2019s ever lived.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We are blessed with circumstances and stuff.\u00a0 And yet, the number of Americans who describe themselves as \u201chappy\u201d is no higher today than in the 50\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Friends, there is no magic pill.\u00a0 There is no magic policy.\u00a0 There is no magic that makes everyone suddenly feel better when the pill, policy, or rhetorical promise is rooted in comparison of someone else.\u00a0 Comparison only pits people against each other; it does not satisfy the soul.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As acknowledged recently, my son\u2019s show choir group of 50-some talented teens performed in a highly competitive contest over the weekend.\u00a0 They faced several nationally recognized groups, not knowing where they would stand at day\u2019s end.\u00a0 When the entertaining day ended \u2014 out of a total of 500+ points \u2014 my son\u2019s group was named 1st Runner Up \u2014 <i>by only 4 points.<\/i>\u00a0 They almost won!\u00a0 In our \u201chave not society,\u201d there\u2019s a problem, though.\u00a0 Too many of us \u2014 and too many will teach our kids \u2014 to focus on those 4 points.\u00a0 Focusing on those points \u2014 on the\u00a0 \u201chave not&#8217;s\u201d \u2014 keeps us oblivious to the blessing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On a related tangent&#8230; my family also recently travelled to an NBA game.\u00a0 As our family of 5 strode to our seats, my youngest son <i>(whose special needs have been previously shared)<\/i> was suddenly, completely paralyzed with fear by the excessive stimulation of the environment and the height of our seats.\u00a0 For lack of better words, he freaked out, throwing his body on the ground in the middle of a crowded walkway.\u00a0 There was nothing I could do or say to ease his legitimate, yet irrational fear.\u00a0 And so we paid $40\/50 each to instead sit in the corridor outside the arena.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t see the game.<\/p>\n<p>Near the end of regulation, some sort of internal switch went off in my sweet son\u2019s head.\u00a0 With zero prompting, he made a proclamation:\u00a0 <i>\u201cI\u2019ll be brave.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to spoil your fun.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go.\u201d\u00a0<\/i> And on that note we headed to our seats.\u00a0 Yes, with 3 minutes left in the 48 minute game.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With 8 seconds left, my hometown favorites hit the shot that sent the game into overtime.\u00a0 <i>Excellent!<\/i>\u00a0 I was so thankful!\u00a0 Yes, instead of focusing on the 45 minutes I missed, I was thankful to have an extra 5.\u00a0 That was a blessing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Respectfully,<\/p>\n<p>AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Tis rare we begin a post with a prayer, but I continue to be unable to shake the profound, contemporary relevance&#8230; Lord, forgive me for so often being forgetful of your goodness, for acting as if I deserve anything more or different than what I have received&#8230; &nbsp; It persists in plaguing me that we &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2878\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;oblivious to the blessing&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2878"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2881,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878\/revisions\/2881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}