sometimes finding gratitude means letting gratitude find you

​I got up early yesterday morning and headed west. It was too dark to imagine a sunrise, but I knew the sunrise was what I was chasing. When it's Thanksgiving, and you're struggling with gratitude, there's no better place to find it than in a sunrise.

As I got closer to my destination, I could see the light starting to appear back east in my rear view mirror. I began to worry that I might not beat the sunrise to the overlook where I was headed.

I pulled into the overlook and looked due east. I could see hints of orange and yellow starting to appear. I was just in time. In a matter of moments, it looked like a fiery explosion lighting up the sky from which I'd just come.

It wasn't lost on me that I'd driven an hour and a half to have a good view of the sky that I live under.

As the sun slowly rose, and I took in each new color combination, I found myself saying, this was worth the chase. I was overwhelmed with gratitude at the beauty of it all, at the promise that no matter what feels destroyed in us, beauty will always find a way to rise above it.

Rise above us.

I could sense an echo of sorts from the mountains in the distance - from the blazing colors just beyond them. The more I proclaimed you were worth the chase, the louder I heard, you were worth the chase.

I began to wonder, was I chasing the sunrise, or was the sunrise chasing me?

I felt reminded by God - I could hear him - I never stop chasing you. You quit on yourselves and each other, but I never quit on you. You hide from yourselves and from each other, but I never hide from you. I never - EVER - stop chasing you.

I'm glad I went to the mountains. It was the perfect place to be at the perfect moment in time. But I could clearly hear God telling me that chasing gratitude is sometimes as easy as pausing and knowing and feeling gratitude chasing me.

We sometimes have to work hard, we have to take a firm hold of our minds, to truly feel and see the good in life. All the while, God's nature is to in every moment see the good in us. Sometimes while we're frantically chasing the good, God is chasing us - begging us to stop - to simply tell us, I've already found it.

I encourage you - if you're struggling to find the good in life - the good in YOU - look in the rear view mirror. Be reminded there is a God chasing you, bright lights and all, asking you to pull over. Pull over and be reminded that the gratitude you're looking for in the world, God already feels it for you.