On Descartes, Contentment and Thanksgiving Day

What is Thanksgiving day about? Is it a day where we remind ourselves how lucky we are compared to others? Is it a meal that gives us strength for the frenzied Black Friday Shopping the next day? I'm pretty sure that both of these would be pretty sad ways to celebrate Thanksgiving because they fall woefully short of what Thanksgiving actually means.
As the name suggests, Thanksgiving is about being thankful but exactly does that mean to us? I think that being thankful is directly tied with being content, If you are satisfied with everything that God has given you and realize that it is all a gift from him that you could never deserve, you will want to thank him all of it, for everything.
The problem is that contentment is not a very popular sentiment these days. In  society full of advertisements, self-help books, and plastic surgery, it becomes easy to believe that we are "missing out on something", that nothing is ever "enough" for us. We begin to hope that if we buy one more song, one more clothing item, one more get rich quick scheme that probably won't work anyway, that we will suddenly feel happy and complete. Unfortunately this isn't limited just to things that you can buy, it has a nasty habit of creeping into relationships as well. When we are alone, the only thing that we can think about is wanting a friend, once we have friends, we want a romantic relationship, once we have that, we want to get married and once we are married we want to have kids, a house with a two car garage, a successful job.....and it just keeps going from there. Our sinful nature is never satisfied which is one of the many reasons why we shouldn't let our selfish ambition run things -we never have enough. As Solomon says in Ecclesiates: "Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content." (Eccles 1:8)
This issue of contentment is something that is really close to my heart because it is something that I have struggled with for this entire semester (This whole year actually) God was giving me so much and I couldn't see it because I was discontent. God would answer something that I had prayed for and I didn't even notice because my attention had turned over to the next thing that I wanted on my bucket list. I had wanted to attend CCU for several years and even when it seemed more and more fiscally impossible I kept pushing and pressing to get in. But God single handedly got me into Metro, who would have guessed that one of the first colleges to pop up on a statewide Google search would be affordable, relatively close by and that God would be able to get me in even when the administration didn't like the envelope that my Homeschooling Highscool Transcript was in -This was a providential gift of God! When I worked at Camp I kept feeling like my job wasn't as vital as the jobs that I saw other people doing, I kept feeling as if I was put in the wrong place. Only on the last day of Camp did I learn that my job was making a difference and that I was in the perfect place (On a side note: I'm applying to do this same job again next summer) once again, God had given me so much and yet my selfish nature wanted something more. In another case, I really liked someone (For about two years!) and I was hoping that a romantic relationship would develop between the two of us. This desire became an obsession and when it became clear that it wouldn't happen, I was hit with yet another wave of discontent. But what I failed to see was that God was still giving me so many blessings that I just wasn't noticing because I wasn't content. When I started college I felt lonely, overwhelmed, awkward and out of place , yet, within 48 hours of starting college, God had already provided me with so many wonderful friends through the amazing college student ministry that I am a part of.
So how do we begin to notice the blessings around us? How do we find contentment? This semester I learned a lot about contentment through a Philosopher named Rene Descartes. This may seem a bit strange but I was taking Introduction to Philosophy this semester and I often connect the concepts I learn in various classes like puzzle pieces. Anyway, Descartes was a Philosopher who introduced an interesting concept called "Methodic Doubt". When I think about Methodic Doubt, I picture a giant trash can; anything that you cannot be 100% sure of, anything that you could have even the slightest reason to doubt gets tossed into the bin because it is "unreliable". Can you count on your computer? Most of the time but sometimes it doesn't start up right so it has to go into the bin. Can you trust your perceptions? Sometimes but there are also times when you can be so certain of something, so sure about the way that someone will react and yet find yourself to be completely wrong; so into the bin it goes! Can you trust your senses? Most of us can, but what about the schizophrenics that hear voices that aren't actually there? What about us? Sometimes we think that we see something or hear something that isn't there; so your senses need to go into the bin too. In the end, Descartes found that there were only two things that he could be sure of: 1. The fact that he exists because he can think about things, and 2. The fact that a loving, truthful God exists who holds Descartes' existence together. Descartes later explains how we can be sure about other people and the environment around us but for the purposes of explaining contentment, I will stop here. (Don't worry, I know that there is a reality and I also know that you exist)
Descartes thoughts on this matter really made me think. If You and God were the only things in the entire universe, if the only thing that you could ever be sure of was God's presence in your life, would he be enough for you? This was an idea that I pondered, wondered and struggled with but what I finally realized is that God is all that I really need, he is way more than enough for me. This also means that anything else that we have in our lives: our friends, knowledge, wealth, children, husbands, wives, homes, pets, siblings, beds, clothes, appearance, food, health, his sacrifice on the cross on our behalf and even the very breath in our lungs are all gifts from God. That is how we can become thankful, we realize that everything that we have ad everything that we are is because of God's hand in our lives, and at least for me, the praises just our out from there!   
"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior." (Hab 3:17-18) 

I'm Back!

Hi guys! I'm Back!
I know that it's been a while and some of you may even be wondering who I am at this point (I'm still Emma),  but there have been a lot of exciting things going on in my life lately. I worked at Camp IdRaHaJe over the summer which was amazing! The chance to work wth so many kids and have fun sharing Jesus with them (And yes, Paracord was also a pretty big deal at the craft shop). Just like what usually happens when I work at camp, I learned a lot about where I was in my faith and what I still need to hand over to God (I'll try and share a more specific post about camp soon). After camp I had a little flex time and then I was off on another adventure, this one was called: College. Yep, I started my first semester of college. All of this has been quite fun and exciting but also very exhausting!  Once I started college, I was able to have the added blessing of joining a ministry on campus called AMP which has really helped me to grow and connect with Christian students on campus. I have been taking several great classes and I will probably be mentioning my Philosophy class a lot in the next few posts. Philosophy has been by far the most challenging of the classes that I am taking, it has helped me to figure our some of the aspects of my worldview and I have learned a lot about the modern values held by our society....it is also the place where I have occasionally felt like my faith was being attacked by a sledgehammer. I hope that I will be able to post more regularly now- especially considering that I have a new smartphone which means I can write while I'm in transit. I will return soon with exciting new posts, I just wanted to tell you guys that I'm back. :)