The song ‘Reasons to be cheerful (Pt 3)‘ was a hit in 1979 and was inspired by a near fatal accident involving a lighting roadie. Roadie Charley almost got electrocuted in Italy by a microphone stand while leaning over a mixing desk; he was saved by another roadie, and Ian Dury wrote the song to remind us of the many, many reasons we have to be cheerful and thankful. In it, he thinks about lots of reasons to be cheerful, many of which might seem trivial to us – ‘the juice of a carrot, the smile of a parrot…cheddar cheese and pickle… something nice to study, phoning up a buddy.’ (Ian Dury & The Blockheads) We might think we’ve got nothing to be thankful about, but as the song points out, there’s always something we can be thankful for.
Eph 1:3 reminds us that God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. The old hymn reminds us to ‘count our blessings’ and ‘name them one by one.’ There is a lot to be gained from listing things for which we are thankful and reminding ourselves of the myriad ways in which God blesses us day by day.
Jesus once told a story about ten lepers He healed. (Luke 17:11-19) He said that only one of them came back to say ‘Thank You’ to Him. What about the other nine? Why didn’t they come back? Why was it left to the foreigner, to the Samaritan, to come back and give thanks for his healing? I suspect that the ratio of nine to one is sadly true of us today – it’s so much easier to forget to be thankful and to simply carry on with our lives without stopping to thank God for all His blessings, love and help.But if we take heed and dig deep for the ‘10,000 reasons for my heart to find’ (Matt Redman), we’ll feel better in ourselves, bless other people and please God. Win, win!
