“Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God!” I exclaimed, repeating my favourite slogan.
I have always said to my friends: In all conditions and circumstances of life, keep thanking God: let the words, “Thank you God!” be on your lips all the time.
It is easy enough to thank God when you are having a good time; when you get everything you want; when you are healthy and strong; when you are climbing the ladder of success; when you are enjoying the ride; when things work according to your plan; when everything turns out to be fine.
But I’m talking about difficult times, when the going gets hard; when we lose something we value; when a relationship breaks up; when illness strikes us; when failure dogs our footsteps; when the world seems to collapse all around us.
There was a man who started from humble origins. Through his hard work and enterprising spirit, he built up a flourishing business. However, the vagaries of the stock market brought bad times upon him, and one day, he became bankrupt.
Amidst the ruins of his fortunes, the man did something very few of us can do. He took a piece of paper and wrote down all the things he still had with him: a loving, caring family; a strong, healthy body; an active, intelligent mind; contacts and associations which he had built up over the years; the business acumen and valuable experience he had gained in the past…
The man realised that he still had a great deal to be thankful for! With gratitude to God in his heart, he decided that he would start anew.
His optimism was well founded. In a few years’ time, he had built up a still larger business than his previous venture.
When we count our blessings and thank the Lord even in adversity, we will find that our sufferings recede into the background.
Every experience that comes to us is just the right experience occurring at the right time to train us in the right way. So let us accept God’s Will in the spirit of gratitude and cheerful acceptance. Let us not complain, nor attempt to circumvent anything. Let us thank God for everything that happens to us.
Dada J P Vaswani is a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader
