Being Grateful for Simple Things

"Holy God Almighty," I declared after Luke pointed out that we had almost finished slogging through the marsh below Mt. Evans' west ridge. Several times my feet had sunk into the mud past my ankles. I was tired and filthy.

"Holy God Almighty," if spoken reverently, expresses gratitude to God for providing relief from discomfort, despite the fact that the Almighty himself caused the discomfort. The man who feels gratitude to God for ending suffering that God caused must see himself as deserving of punishment. The Puritans impressed this attitude on school children. The letter J in The New England Primer is accompanied by an image of Job's suffering and this rhyme:

Job feels the Rod
Yet blesses GOD.

Calling God merciful for limiting the suffering He inflicts is laugh-out-loud nonsense. But there is a grain of validity in this religious attitude toward suffering: we should strive to grasp that life is valuable even when we have to confront pain, adversity, and set backs.