Gratitude

What are you grateful for today?  What is it that when you look around your life brings a smile to your face?  

When I think about responses to those questions, some answers that immediately come to mind are: my family, my work, and sun shine.  I could think about the joy of running yesterday...okay the joy when I was done running yesterday, the indescribable feeling that stirs within me when I listen to music, or having a few days of rest.

Practicing gratitude in our world today is counter-cultural.  So much in our world today says to us, you need more...you don't have enough...don't slow down...don't quit.  Gratitude is the practice of taking a deep breath, stopping, and surveying our surroundings long enough so we can actually see what is around us rather than the blur of our usual frenzied pace.  Gratitude says to a world of constant consuming..."No, I am good right now."  Gratitude says to a world of constant criticism, "Yes, there is joy right here and now."  Gratitude shouts out with hope to the world.

To be honest, there are a lot of objects your mind might raise to gratitude.  What about kids who are hungry?  People who are grieving?  Or countries in turmoil?  One of the ways we deal with our own gratitude-deficiency today is the mental Jedi-mind trick of detachment.  We try to poke holes in other people's gratitude so we don't have to look at the holes in our own.  

Yes, there is too much suffering in this world.  Yes, we don't share food in equal ways.  Yes, injustice is an offense to God.  And so is missing the beauty of God's creation and the wonder of God's presence here and now...see my last post for that.

The point is not that it is all joy or all pain...the point is that life is a mixture of both.  People who travel aboard often comment on the joy, gratitude people in other countries have.  People who are grieving often have the most genuine laughter, even as tears are streaming down their faces.  

David Lose in the months after Easter kept a gratitude journal.  Every day he wrote down one thing he was grateful for.  This was in the midst of some major transitions in his life.  While I was inspired by this, I must confess that my own attempts fell flat.  I got busy, preoccupied with other things and forgot to list one thing I was grateful for.  It seems so silly that I could not pause for just one moment each day and give thanks to the present God in my life for one thing.  

That is why I say being grateful and practicing gratitude is counter-cultural.  It is a shift from our normal way of being.  Yet, I also think if the first step into prayer is noticing God in our life, the second step is saying "Thank you for this most amazing day!"...to quote e.e. cummings;

And I have not yet given up.  I keep trying to be open to God in the present moment and to say thank you for: walk with my wife last night, the joy of cooking homemade waffles with my kids this morning, the opportunity to share my thoughts with others...

One of my favorite quotes is from Meister Eckhart who said, "If the only prayer you ever prayed was 'Thank you' it would be enough."  I am still trying to live into that wisdom today.

thank you, God.  Thank you, God.  Thank you, God for this most amazing day.

May the traces of God's grace surround you this day and fill you with gratitude.

Blessings ~