Gratitude is a powerful thing!
/I thank my God every time I remember you. - Phil. 1:3
I was speaking to a group of leaders the other night and referenced St. Paul’s grateful remarks from Philippians Chapter 1. A friend came up afterwards to say how much he appreciated my comments. He said he’d been told that gratitude is first among the virtues and asked what I thought. In light of Paul’s statement from 1 Corinthians 13 that 3 things remain: faith, hope, and love…with the greatest being love, I wasn’t quite ready to move gratitude to the top of the “virtue hierarchy.” But, I certainly understood his point.
Because gratitude is a powerful thing.
It changes a person…
…so much so, it’s almost visible.
You can see gratitude on someone…like a contagious smile or kind eyes. It’s difficult to hide. Thankful people simply see things that others don’t. They look at life differently, because they see everything through the lens of gratitude.
True gratitude has two powerful components, both of which are essential.
The first is a clear view of all the good things we possess. Gratitude looks around and sees people we love, gifts we enjoy, opportunities we’ve been given and recognizes them all as gifts rather than as rights or entitlements. So many of the good things in life were not earned, but were just given. Grateful people know this well and, consequently, are far more focused on what they have than what they don’t.
Gratitude also recognizes that these gifts have a giver. It’s not just luck or good fortune. We are grateful to someone. Paul said it this way: “I thank my God.” Gratitude looks and sees that all these gifts come from the hand of a Father who loves us. I’ve said many times that I feel sorry for atheists who have no one to thank in those moments when they are overcome with gratitude! Without an object, gratitude just seems like hollow self-congratulations.
True gratitude sees God’s goodness all around! Consequently, it feeds our faith, fills us with hope, and gives expression to the love that we have in our Father!
Hey, wait a minute…Now that I think about it, maybe my friend was on to something…
Gratitude really is a powerful thing!
(One day, when I was in a particularly grateful state of mind, I wrote a song called “Simple Things.” Check it out here!)
The Comfort of Lamentation.
/Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old22 unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. -- Lamentations 5:21-22
In our congregational Bible reading plan, we just finished the book of Lamentations, which records the prophet, Jeremiah, grieving over the fate of the nation, Israel. Jeremiah had watched in horror as they turned their back on God and experienced the inevitable consequence of their sin. I must confess, reading Lamentations, this time, was a bit different than previous times. I found myself relating at a new and different level.
Our nation is in trouble.
In the last few weeks, radical Islamic terrorists have carried out horrific attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. In the past, our grief and indignation over this kind of thing would have unified our nation…at least for a time. But that’s not what’s happening. Not only can we not even agree on what is evil or good, public figures who issued messages of prayer and support were told to keep their prayers to themselves unless they adopted the political solution of their critics. The political animosity is so thick, it seems to trump even our sense of decency and humanity. As a nation we are losing our mind, which is really just a symptom of a far more serious condition.
We are losing our soul.
As a Christian and a pastor, I am deeply saddened and grieved by what I see. It is at this point that I feel some of Jeremiah’s pain. Watching your nation run from God and witnessing the resulting chaos is not fun. In fact, it’s heartbreaking.
However, just like Jeremiah, we know that the story is not over. We know that God is at work even in difficult times…maybe particularly in difficult times. Eugene Peterson astutely observed in Jeremiah's message that even judgment is “in the service of salvation.”* The last thing the church needs to do is despair. Rather, we need to recognize that the light of God’s hope burns even more brightly in a darkening world.
A few suggestions…
• Remember, God does some of His best work when things are at their worst. His kingdom and His church always seem to thrive in dark times.
• No matter what, follow Jesus…and expect to be moving against the cultural flow! But remember, the most powerful gospel message is the life of Jesus lived out in His people.
• Never discount the power of prayer! Prayer has been shown to change the course of nations. So pray!
Oh…and one more thing:
• Remember, the people who disagree with you are not the enemy. The gospel is never served by our vilifying those who disagree with us. Even worse is when we verbally attack other believers over the politics of the day. Jesus said that the proof that we are His followers would be our love for one another. The quality of our love for each other will either be our great strength or our greatest weakness.
This Christmas season, I find myself wondering if Jeremiah might have prayed something like this…
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
*Eugene Peterson, Run with the Horses, InterVarsity Press, 1983, Pg 185
