What More Do You Want?

Ungratefulness

One of the many frustrating things in life is ungrateful people. Not simply people who are rude, but those who, although you may have sacrificed your time, money, or attention to help them, do not seem to be appreciative or thankful in any way. Although the measure of our demonstration of love for our neighbor should never be based upon how they choose to react, it can be frustrating when someone we help or give a gift to is completely ungrateful.

If we are honest with ourselves, however, it becomes apparent that a spirit of ungratefulness is common to the condition of man. The tragedy of this ungratefulness is that many are ignorant that they are indeed ungrateful. This ignorance comes from an unwillingness to acknowledge the source of everything they have to be grateful for: our heavenly Father.

Real Blessing

Beyond ungratefulness for being greatly blessed, there is an even more sinister problem with such an attitude. When the world was originally created, it was created “very good” (Gen. 1:31, NASU), describing a completely perfect environment. Man had no need for concern in any aspect of his life. So, because of what God had provided man, He could have asked, “You have a world to live in, provisions to partake of, and a source of life in a perfect Garden. What more do you want?”

The facetious nature of such a question (obviously, there was nothing more man could possibly need or should want) betrays the sad truth. Despite the idyllic, perfect, unspoiled world man and woman were placed into, they still wanted something more. They wanted to “be like God” (Gen. 3:5). Although God had done everything for them, they still wanted something more; something that they could not really have; something that would ultimately destroy them.

Although separated by spans of years, are we any better than Adam or Eve in our attitude toward God, our source of all blessing? When we too choose to commit sin in our lives, we are demonstrating the greatest act of ungratefulness – in essence saying that what God has given us is not enough. At times of year such as this when “thankfulness” is the focus of the world, perhaps instead of simply being thankful of what God has given us, we should be more thankful that God chose to save us, despite just how ungrateful we can truly be.