Gratitude – A Gift of God – by Greg Albrecht
We here in these United States are beginning to think about Thanksgiving Day – already observed by our Canadian friends on October 13. Of all the seasons and holidays of the year, I think that Thanksgiving is perhaps my favorite. For those of us upon whom God has lavished his grace, thanksgiving is one of our most fundamental responses to God. A national holiday adorned and “identified” as Thanksgiving is itself a blessing – for the reminder to one and all to focus on being thankful!
You may think you know what is coming in this letter. You may think, “OK – Thanksgiving. This will be a letter about gratitude and appreciation. Maybe some examples to help me be thankful. Maybe some further insights about thanksgiving.”
As the British comedy troupe/group Monty Python was famous for saying in the introduction to their sketches/skits – “And now for something completely different.” Let me take advantage of what you may expect, turn the tables and do the opposite, at least briefly. We have all heard many exhortations reminding us to be thankful and how to be grateful. But sometimes the best way to get a point across is to consider the opposite – the negative side. Here’s three points to ponder about how we can be ungrateful, grumpy, negative, and generally unappreciative.
• Start keeping track of all your pet peeves. Make a list of everyone who bothers you. Spend time, every day, thinking about all those people who have hurt you and offended you over the years – pray that they will get theirs.
• Complain and gripe about everything you can. Increase your efforts to be a grumpy “old man” or grumpy “old woman.”
• Make certain you fill your mind with depressing negativity. Make sure the company you keep (whether friends or family, or the news channels you watch and listen to) are just as negative as you are.
Sometimes a bit of irony – some tongue in cheek humor can make the opposite point, perhaps with a bit of sarcasm. The lighter side can help us see the light – that is, the Light of Jesus Christ. Let us now intentionally turn from negativity, which is fertile ground for being ungrateful, and emphasize the positive – as the lyrics of that old song performed by none other than Bing Crosby go, accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.
Dr. Bert Hall, one of my graduate school professors, was fond of calling Philippians a beautiful “thank you” letter from the Apostle Paul to his spiritual brothers and sisters in Philippi whose generosity helped him as he ministered to others:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things (Philippians 4:8).
Giving thanks for our food is perhaps the most common and popular “lesson” that people have about the day of Thanksgiving. It is true that Thanksgiving here in the United States hearkens back to a time when people experienced severe hunger, and even when they did not, were constantly aware that hunger loomed on the horizon as a clear and present danger. It’s difficult for North Americans today to imagine such a time and culture, because few of us have ever lived on the edge of extreme want and need.
But long before you and I were born, here in North America, remaining alive meant always being aware of the wind, weather and harvest. My grandparents, along with my father and his twin sister, barely survived the Depression in Kansas. They were “at the mercy” of the weather. A severe drought turned their tiny farm into a Dust Bowl. Hundreds of millions of people all around this world today realize how tenuous their grasp on life is – their survival depends on the weather, on rain and on the cycles of nature.
For those of us used to being able to shop at a supermarket that is open almost 24-hours-a-day, such a reality is hard to imagine. For those of us in North America, if we don’t want to actually purchase and prepare food, there is always the possibility of buying “fast food.”
Thus, Thanksgiving reminds us that to hunger and thirst is one of the most basic components of what it means to be human. We must eat and drink in order to remain alive. But those of us who follow Christ, walking in faith, focusing on him, realize that we also hunger and thirst spiritually (Matthew 5:6). Beyond accentuating the positive, our faith, a gift of God’s amazing grace, motivates us to realize the day of Thanksgiving is far more than giving thanks for our food.
I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever (John 6:48-51).
As we are given Jesus, the Bread of life, and as we are nourished by him, we are filled with gratitude and thanksgiving. We give thanks always, every day – and we do not feel as if we have a once-a-year obligation to officially give thanks. When we eat of Jesus, the Bread of life, the grace of God, our risen Lord Jesus, produces gratitude and thanksgiving in our lives.
Giving thanks is at the heart of our relationship with God because love, gratitude and thanksgiving are core products of the life Jesus lives within us. The act of giving thanks is a way of life, a habitual response borne of God, wherein we, who depend on our heavenly Father for everything, admit to him we are not capable of providing all our physical needs nor are we capable of producing our spiritual needs.
Thanksgiving “puts us in our place.” That is, by expressing gratitude to God we are more likely to see our complete reliance on God, and by contrast, how inadequate our attempts are to please and appease God. Thanksgiving is, truly, all about gratitude.
A friend asked me, “Do you think we are ever grateful enough?” My immediate response was, “Of course not – it is only by God’s grace that we are enabled to be as grateful as we are. We are his children, and we will grow in the grace of knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as we mature in Christ, we will, again by God’s grace, grow in gratitude.”
As I reflected on my answer to my friend’s question I realized that I might not have responded to that word “enough” as well as I could have. What does it mean to be grateful “enough?” Enough for what? While we will never, in this flesh, be able to see and perceive all of the magnificent dimensions of gratitude, God gives us “enough” gratitude that we may know, love and worship him, putting an emphasis on giving thanks to and for God.
Gratitude is given by God, gratitude is an essential part of the very nature of God, and gratitude is part of our human connection and bonding to and with God. Put another way, there is no relationship a human might have with God without the presence of the central and core ingredient of gratitude.
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) put it this way: Thanks (giving) is the highest form of thought … Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
Karl Barth (1886-1968), considered by many to be the most respected and Christ-centered theologians of the 20th century, once said, Grace and gratitude go together like heaven and earth.
As Christ-followers, we are grateful for physical blessings, material things that bring comforts, pleasures and happiness to our lives. We need not be ashamed or feel guilty for the physical benefits we enjoy, all the while acknowledging that God is the source of all blessings – indeed, every good and perfect gift is from above… (James 1:17).
But beyond the physical BY FAR AND AWAY our deepest and most profound gratitude is for the goodness, love, grace and mercy of God. His grace and goodness never fail, his love is forever, his mercy is without end.
Giving thanks grounds us in God. Giving thanks is foundational to our relationship to and with God. Giving thanks is intrinsic to living by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7) and therefore God-given gratitude we realize and receive gives us peace, enabling us to fully rest in Christ.
We conclude this “Thanksgiving letter” by returning to that wonderful “thank-you” letter of Philippians:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7, my emphasis).
Grateful to God, and grateful for you,
Your brother in Christ,
Greg Albrecht
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