Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name.” Psalm 100:4
I guess I knew it…but I forgot. Cruising (like in a big ship) isn’t for everybody but after trying it, I discovered I was a fan. Oh, it has its drawbacks—like spending a week with 3,000 people you don’t know but it also has plenty of positives. One that surprised me was the lessons that you can learn…while eating dinner in the middle of the sea.
The dinner service on a cruise is amazing—as is the food. During our time on the ship, we had the same servers each night. We had two young men who served as our primary servers and another guy who was in charge of all the servers. The guy in charge was nice enough but I noticed that when he was at the table, he was always looking somewhere else. It seemed his mouth and eyes were sending different messages. The other two guys told a whole different tale. We became well acquainted, and we learned a bit about their lives. The number one thing I learned was that I am grateful I am not a server on a cruise ship. They were both from Indonesia and it turns out they work for seven months straight with no days off before going home for two months—but then without pay. They worked hard and they worked long…until they didn’t.
One evening we were chatting, and the topic somehow came to the COVID outbreak. I knew the cruise lines, along with the rest of the world, shut down. But that night I had a bigger, clearer perspective. The server guy said, they sent him home with no pay, no benefits, no anything—for TWO years. Imagine that. I asked what he did, and he said whatever he could find, including selling ice cream on the street. I was shocked that the cruise line didn’t at least attempt to care for those who were so loyal to them. I grieved for them and what they went through but something else happened—it made me grateful. I was grateful that I could work.
I was also grateful that I lived in America and even though it was a wacky time, I knew help of some sort was close by. I knew that my church would be there for me if needed and I knew God was there 24/7—ready and able to help me. I re-learned a valuable lesson—that hearing someone else’s story can often help us become more grateful. This week when we are focusing on being thankful, perhaps we should take the time to look and listen at the lives and stories of others. We might discover an opportunity to not only help—but to learn—learn to be thankful to a God who always says, “I’ve got this.” Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 