Wednesday, December 17, 2003
tis the season?
seems like this holiday season isn't faring very well for people. some have had a loved one pass away, some have sick loved ones, some just need a little pick-me-up. if it happened any other time of year, it would still feel bad. but because it's the holiday season, i think the bad things just feel a bit worse. well, wherever you are in the spectrum of worry, sadness, loneliness, be thankful for what you do have.
courtesy of francia who's blog i can finally access again (yay, finally!):
lesson eighteen: gratitude
"o give thanks to the LORD, for HE is good." --psalm 106:1
from our first theme in prayer, praise, we move toward a related mood, giving thanks. praise is being awestruck and glorifying GOD for who GOD is.
thanks is being dumbfounded and grateful for what GOD has done for us.
the ancient israelites enjoyed a huge advantage over us in terms of feeling grateful. lacking technology and financial security, they knew they were
utterly dependent upon GOD
for their bread (if they had any bread), for shelter (if they had any shelter), for taking that next breath, for the sunshine and rain. we modern people are so smart, so self-sufficient--and especially in america, where
we prize independence above all else.
we think of gratitude as a feeling that you either have spontaneously, or you just don't have--and generally we don't.
we nurture grievances and file complaints.
advertisers incessantly lull us into a sense of dissatisfaction, so we will buy their products. even the season of thanksgiving becomes one more day of vacation, when the malls have sales and we gorge ourselves with a bit too much turkey and dressing.
perhaps our hardest lesson in prayer is to develop this counterintuitive sense of dependence.
i am not the master of my fate.
it's not all up to me. i don't "earn" what is genuinely good in life.
it is all a gift; all grace.
henri nouwen understood how gratitude takes practice:
"the discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to
acknowledge that all i am and have is given to me as a gift of love,
a gift to be celebrated with joy.
"gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice.
i can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are steeped
in hurt and resentment.
it is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which
i can choose to be grateful when i am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness.
i can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly. i can choose to listen to the voices that forgive and to look at the faces that smile, even while i still hear words of revenge and grimaces of hatred...
"the choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. but each time i make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious...
acts of gratitude make one grateful."
the psalms, once again, are a mighty chorus of thanks to GOD. in fact, many of the psalms (such as 30, 34, 66, 126) were little worship services in which you would gather with family, neighbors, and friends, and tell the story of "what GOD has done for me." as a tangible expression of your gratitude, you would give an offering--your best sheep, the first wheat that ripened--as thanks to GOD.
to grow in gratitude, we will probably need to be sure our gratitude is tangible, involving our stuff, offered to GOD, shared with the poor.
and we will need to learn how to tell our story--to someone unsure about GOD, to someone who may be losing hope, to someone who's burdened by "earning" and toting the weight of the world on his or her shoulders.
so let us pray together, using psalm 118:21-28 (nsrv):
i thank YOU that YOU have answered me and become my salvation.
YOU are my GOD, and i will give thanks to YOU.
this is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. amen.
courtesy of francia who's blog i can finally access again (yay, finally!):
"o give thanks to the LORD, for HE is good." --psalm 106:1
from our first theme in prayer, praise, we move toward a related mood, giving thanks. praise is being awestruck and glorifying GOD for who GOD is.
thanks is being dumbfounded and grateful for what GOD has done for us.
the ancient israelites enjoyed a huge advantage over us in terms of feeling grateful. lacking technology and financial security, they knew they were
utterly dependent upon GOD
for their bread (if they had any bread), for shelter (if they had any shelter), for taking that next breath, for the sunshine and rain. we modern people are so smart, so self-sufficient--and especially in america, where
we prize independence above all else.
we think of gratitude as a feeling that you either have spontaneously, or you just don't have--and generally we don't.
we nurture grievances and file complaints.
advertisers incessantly lull us into a sense of dissatisfaction, so we will buy their products. even the season of thanksgiving becomes one more day of vacation, when the malls have sales and we gorge ourselves with a bit too much turkey and dressing.
perhaps our hardest lesson in prayer is to develop this counterintuitive sense of dependence.
i am not the master of my fate.
it's not all up to me. i don't "earn" what is genuinely good in life.
it is all a gift; all grace.
henri nouwen understood how gratitude takes practice:
"the discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to
acknowledge that all i am and have is given to me as a gift of love,
a gift to be celebrated with joy.
"gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice.
i can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are steeped
in hurt and resentment.
it is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which
i can choose to be grateful when i am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness.
i can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly. i can choose to listen to the voices that forgive and to look at the faces that smile, even while i still hear words of revenge and grimaces of hatred...
"the choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. but each time i make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious...
acts of gratitude make one grateful."
the psalms, once again, are a mighty chorus of thanks to GOD. in fact, many of the psalms (such as 30, 34, 66, 126) were little worship services in which you would gather with family, neighbors, and friends, and tell the story of "what GOD has done for me." as a tangible expression of your gratitude, you would give an offering--your best sheep, the first wheat that ripened--as thanks to GOD.
to grow in gratitude, we will probably need to be sure our gratitude is tangible, involving our stuff, offered to GOD, shared with the poor.
and we will need to learn how to tell our story--to someone unsure about GOD, to someone who may be losing hope, to someone who's burdened by "earning" and toting the weight of the world on his or her shoulders.
so let us pray together, using psalm 118:21-28 (nsrv):
i thank YOU that YOU have answered me and become my salvation.
YOU are my GOD, and i will give thanks to YOU.
this is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. amen.
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quotable quotes
-
"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the
greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks
nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, live, and love."
~unknown
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"live a life that others will remember years from now, NOT because it pointed to you but because of how it pointed to the One who made you."
~ Mark Hart, the Bible Geek
"we grow up learning to become self-reliant, but really we need to be God-reliant"
"we could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box"
"never wound hearts that love u, never give them the endless pain, because wounded hearts are like roses that never bloom"
"there comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we'd let go"
