Quit Your Bitchin’

What if some of the greatest miracles in our lives are the ones we’ve become too comfortable to notice?

Clean water. Running water. Electricity. A refrigerator. A hot shower. A toilet that flushes. A light switch that works.

According to WHO and UNICEF, roughly 2.2 billion people worldwide still lack safely managed drinking water, and more than 700 million people don’t even have basic drinking-water service. Yet if I want to witness a miracle today, I can walk ten feet, turn a faucet, and clean water appears. Hot or cold—my choice.

Think about that.

I turn a little handle and water comes out of the wall.

Then there’s electricity. Roughly 650–700 million people worldwide still live without access to electricity, with many millions more living with unreliable service and frequent outages. Meanwhile, I walk into a dark room, flick a switch, and expect the room to light up instantly.

And God forbid the Wi-Fi goes down.

We lose our minds because our Starbucks order isn’t quite right. Someone gives a restaurant two stars because the fries weren’t hot enough. Sometimes I read a bad or mediocre Yelp review and think: This is a “shut the fuck up” moment for the ungrateful.

But I’m not standing outside the glass judging everybody else.

I’m one of them.

I can get irritated at Dodger Stadium because somebody is walking down the aisle and obstructing my view.

How dare they?

News flash, John: You’re at a friggin’ Dodger game.

You’re healthy enough to be there. You have a seat. You have sixty-plus dollars' worth of food in your hands. Thousands of people are enjoying a beautiful Southern California evening around you, and your biggest problem at that particular moment is that another human being blocked your view for twelve seconds.

And yet—you bitch.

Maybe gratitude isn’t merely saying thank you for the extraordinary things. Maybe gratitude is developing eyes capable of recognizing how extraordinary the ordinary already is.

A faucet.

A hot shower.

A light switch.

Food in the refrigerator.

A baseball game.

A healthy body that carried you into the stadium.

People you love waiting for you at home.

I spend so much time asking God for the next miracle that I sometimes fail to recognize I’m standing in the middle of thousands of them.

Scripture says:

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Maybe today I don't need another blessing.

Maybe I just need to quit my bitchin’ long enough to notice the ones I already have.