Today’s guest post is from my friend Lindsey Goodall. She lives in Florida and writes with more honesty and openness on her blog than most bloggers I know. You’ll like her or your money back…
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Waking Up With Gratitude
In the movie, The Holiday, Cameron Diaz’s character had movie trailers on the brain, and because it was her job to make them she would hear the deep booming voice of the famous voice-over guy, Hal Davis, dramatizing her thoughts with every step.
“In a world, where she can no longer trust hottie Ed Burns, how will life go on???”
The deep, smoldering voice and it’s inflection creating the sense that the answer to the question contains the answer to the greatest mystery of all time, when everyone in the audience knows we’ll have a nice, tidy answer in about 2 hours.
Whereas Cameron sees life through the lens of the movie trailer, I tend to do the same thing with status updates. I read lots of quotes and am always looking for a little inspiration in my twitter feed. The problem is, with such greats as Louie Giglio, Tony Campollo, and Bob Goff throwing out thought provoking nuggets all the time, I worry that I’m becoming desensitized to them.
That was, until last week when I was stopped dead in my tracks by a friend’s Facebook status. This one little line evoked that signature, Hal Davis baritone voice and has been looming in the back of my mind ever since.
It read as follows:
[bomp bomp bomp] What if you [bomp bomp bomp] woke up tomorrow [bomp] with only what [low hum] you thanked God for today? [rapturous thunder]
Have you ever heard of a better movie plot? Wouldn’t you go see a movie about Jim Carrey, waking up on a Wednesday morning to find himself lying naked in an empty room with only a VHS copy of The Mask? Or maybe Adam Sandler in a pair of baggies waking up with nothing but his remote control? What would they do? No home, no bed, no job, no family, no food, no love, no God?
While I have no doubt that plot would instantly become a box office hit, it does raise a pretty fascinating question. What would you have tomorrow if you woke up with only what you had thanked God for today?
For me, there would probably be many days where I would arise next to only a ginormous bag of Cheetos. Other days I might wake up with my home, but no job to pay for it. As I write this, I’m suddenly aware of the fact that perhaps the only day I would wake up with my life fully intact would be the last Friday in November. Ouch . . .color me humbled.
So that leads me to 2 questions for you. One that’s kind of personal and one that’s not so deep.
#1 – For some of us life would be drastically different if we only woke up with what we had thanked God for yesterday. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the most ungrateful person ever & 10 being every other word out of your mouth is “thank you”, how good are you at being grateful for the things in your life?
And more (or less) importantly…
#2 – How important is it for you to catch the trailers at the beginning of a movie at the theater? Not that big of a deal or just as important as the movie itself?
Let us know in the comments.
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Make sure you check out Lindsey’s blog, LindseyGoodall.com. And tell her Bryan sent ya.