I Already Have Everything 

When Erma Bombeck was facing her own battle with cancer, she met a little girl named Christina, who had cancer of the nervous system. When Christina was asked what she wants for her birthday, she thought for a while and then shrugged, “I don’t know. I already have two sticker books and a Cabbage Patch doll. I already have everything!” 

The gift of being satisfied is a wonderful thing but it is so hard to get there isn’t it? There always seems to be that one more thing we “need.” Perhaps though we could begin by being grateful for what we have. Thomas Merton said, “To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything he has given us — and he has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of his love.” As it says in the book of James…Every good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights. (James 1:17 NKJV) 

We need to learn to recognize these gifts, and acknowledge them, and remember them as long as we live. David said in Psalm 71:15 All day long I will proclaim your saving power, for I am overwhelmed by how much you have done for me. 

And down in verse 19 he says, You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with you, O God? 

God has blessed each one of us in thousands of ways — many of which we’ve never acknowledged: the people he has put in our lives, the jobs he has provided, the protection he has given us, the mercy he has shown us. 

I encourage you to look back at your life and see how the hand of God has guided you from one place to the next. Look at all the pleasant things that have happened — the unasked-for blessings, the undeserved favors — and say thank you for each one. If you’re like me, this could keep you busy for a couple of decades. 

When Barbara Ann Kipfer was a teenager, she got the idea to make a list of her favorite things. No matter how much she wrote, she couldn’t run out of ideas. The list continued to grow; she added to it all day long — on the bus, at the dinner table, and even in the middle of the night. Twenty years and dozens of spiral notebooks later, her list was compiled into a single volume and published under the title 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. Isn’t that a wonderful idea? 

This year as we approach Thanksgiving perhaps start on compiling a list of things you are thankful for because gratitude is a habit; we have to practice it daily in order to get good at it. 

And perhaps if we practice perhaps, we can say, “I already have everything I need.”