Grateful…Thankful…Happy!

“Sikhulundu no bulamu” (Life is the most important thing) – Grandpa Nganyi

My maternal grandfather, Agostino Nganyi, was a man of simple means. He was a bus driver who raised his children with practical wisdom and simple values. While he was alive, we visited him almost every Christmas and we all have memories and stories of the bits and pieces of wisdom he imparted into us. One that has lived on is the statement “sikhulundu no bhulamu”. This simply means life is the most important thing. He would famously say this whenever anyone was complaining about anything they lacked. He simply lived out of the principle that as long as we’re still alive, the possibilities are endless. Once we’re dead, we cannot achieve much any more. This is the most optimistic principle I’ve gleaned from this patriarch.

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds – Psalms 9:1

As I visit various parts of the Kenya this week, I find that my understanding and appreciation of my birth place is growing deeper and my gratitude is growing stronger. I am deeply grateful for family. It is the one institution closest to the heart of God as He describes Himself as a Father, above all other things. He then describes Jesus as His Son, and us as sons and daughters. I have taken a stroll through past years and various interactions with family and my heart is filled with gratitude for the family I have and the one I hail from.

I will miss thanksgiving with my family (wife and kids) for the first time this year yet I will be with my parents during thanksgiving for the first time – ever! (we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Kenya). My own family means more to me than anything else in the world and I am grateful that I have been blessed with them. There are always things we lack in life and things we wish we had but at the end of the day, as long as we have life, love, and Christ in our midst, the rest is not as important even though it maybe necessary.

I cannot underestimate the power of gratitude. It is one of those things that establishes a path and flow of joy from the inside out. I do not know whether some people are predisposed to be grateful and others have to work at it. All I know is that we all need to carry a healthy dose of gratitude in order to live in the full measure of God’s abundant grace upon our lives.

My paternal grandfather also instilled in me the simple value of wisdom. I was only 5 when he passed away but my memory of him and the stories told about him reveal a man who saw beyond his time and longed to impart himself into those he left behind. Jeremiah Ng’weno is a patriarch to be revered. He served his generation and left behind a legacy we can lean on.

Gratitude breeds thanksgiving and thanksgiving can’t help but breed happiness.

I am grateful for the missionaries that sacrificed much and came to the most remote parts of Africa to impart the Gospel into my grandparents and the generations before them. Because of them, I glean from 4 to 5 generations of Christian converts. These men and women lived professing the name of the Lord and died praying to God, not for themselves, but for us who they were leaving behind. I am grateful.

Gratitude is one of those things that has nothing to do with the actions of others and everything to do with our perspective. As we approach Thanksgiving in the United States and as we live everyday life everywhere else, we can learn to exercise gratitude daily. They say it takes 21 days to break a bad habit and only a day to break a good one.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. – 1 Chronicles 16:34

I will end with a line from a popular Veggie Tales song: “A thankful heart is a happy heart. I’m glad for what I have, that’s an easy place to start. For the love that He shares cause He listens to my prayer. That’s why I say thanks everyday” Gratitude breeds thanksgiving and thanksgiving can’t help but breed happiness.

Dad and Mom, or Tata and Mama as we like to call them