thankful?

Now that it's November, it's time to start playing Christmas music!! Am I right? Just kidding. Honestly though, I don't think there's a right and wrong answer regarding the "when is it an appropriate time to play Christmas music" debate. As a Filipina, I never remember celebrating Thanksgiving until my family and I moved to America... so I've always been one of those people who jump straight to Christmas, but I do enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving with my little family and eating traditional American food + Filipino cuisine (which is super delicious by the way since my mom is such a great cook, shoutout to my mom)!! Lately on my social media I've been seeing people post one of those "Today I'm thankful" posts each day and it had me thinking.... what am I thankful for today? After all.. it's a Monday and the weekend was obviously too short. 

With everything going on in the world right now: shootings, hate crimes, white supremacists, and numerous amounts of suffering and pain... what is actually there to be thankful for? I'm not trying to be a Debbie downer, don't get me wrong... I'm a natural optimist, but lately the world has me feeling devastated. My heart feels heavy and I can't help but feel helpless as I mourn the loss of yet another group of innocent people. "What is there to be thankful for?" I ask myself.

Of course when there's a question..God has an answer... whether you want to hear it or not. Hahahaha. Anyway, I went to church yesterday and the message was about cultivating a thankful life-- a life full of thanksgiving to the Lord.  How relevant. The guest speaker said something that resonated in my soul, he asked us: what do we do when life comes at us in a way we didn't expect? Then he told us we could either be bitter or be better. 

I don't know why, but that phrase really had me thinking. I haven't lived on this Earth that long... I mean I'm only 21, but there have been countless times where I was surprised with what life threw (and continuously throws) at me. I could only imagine it for people who have been here longer and have experienced more hardships in this life. There are so many times where I have let the negative events in my life and everything around me make me bitter. I wish I could say I always chose to be better, but honestly that hasn't always been the case. 

Of course I am thankful for many things (which I will post about later), but today I am especially thankful for a Father who isn't going to let me down. I am thankful that although I may not understand everything that is going on right now, I know that God is working on it even though I cannot see it. 

Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." 

My friend and I were talking on the phone and I couldn't help but complain about how hard it is to completely trust God in situations like yesterday where yet another shooting happened. Or, for example, as the future gets closer and closer, trusting in Him becomes more difficult. My friend just laughed and said, "....well that's faith" and I couldn't help but smile because my friend is right. Even though I don't know why all of the things in the world happen the way they do or what God's plan is for my future, I have faith in a God who is all-knowing, all powerful, and most of all knows what He is doing. And for that, I am so thankful.

I mean, who am I to try and fully comprehend what God is doing, yet alone tell Him how to do His job?