I have been thinking about gratitude, thanksgiving, and happiness. David Steindl-Rast has written: “It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but it is gratefulness that makes us happy.” At one level this strikes a chord, but at another level it is so out of sinc with our world and modern life and probably our upbringing and experience that it makes no sense. The pursuit of “happiness” is at the heart of not only the American dream, but also the striving of most of the modern world. And that “happiness” is usually defined by status, possessions, health, looks, achievements, and the list goes on. But we can all think of people who have all of these things and should be “happy”, profoundly happy, but aren’t. Of course, we could say, “If I had what they have, I would be happy!” Would you? Happiness/joy/contentment/satisfaction is more than the possession of some “thing” or “things.” I have known people who had very little in the way of this world’s goods or great health or a wide social network who were extremely happy people. For them it is more about relationships than things. And at the heart it all was a relationship with God—God, the Giver of this most wonderful gift of life.
Gratitude is the awareness that something has been given to me that I have not earned or can ever earn; it is the awareness that I am graced. Graced with the love and compassion and abiding presence of a God who will not forsake me –that, in the storm as well as the calm, the dark as well as the light, in good times and bad, God is with me. And as I allow that gratitude to permeate my deepest being it begins to express itself in thanksgiving. I say “allow” because while it is a gift, it has to be taken into
my thinking, acting, perspective and relating. And as we do, we will often find that it will conflict with other things that we have learned and will probably mean a great deal of unlearning and reorienting. It will affect my goals and dreams, the way I view and use things, my speech and actions. All of this will be grounded in a profound sense that my life is rooted in God and finds its fulfillment only in resting in and nurturing that relationship.
my thinking, acting, perspective and relating. And as we do, we will often find that it will conflict with other things that we have learned and will probably mean a great deal of unlearning and reorienting. It will affect my goals and dreams, the way I view and use things, my speech and actions. All of this will be grounded in a profound sense that my life is rooted in God and finds its fulfillment only in resting in and nurturing that relationship.
Thanksgiving expresses this gratitude. It helps us acknowledge not only the giver and our gratitude for the gift, it also reminds us that we are not alone. And the interesting thing is that as I live in this gratitude and express this thanksgiving it affects the way that I see the rest of life and especially my
relationships. If gratitude and thanksgiving are at the heart of my life and I learn to see the world through that experience, I begin to see the graciousness in the actions of others, even the small ones. I am often struck by how seldom people say “thank you” to others. People enrich our lives each day and we forget to thank them. Even if what they do is done out of obligation or without thinking, saying “thank you” acknowledges that in some way they have blessed my life and this can remind us of the most fundamental blessing, the gift of God himself. Saying “thank you” also moves me beyond entitlement or my feeling that something is due to me. It reminds me, in the words of Abraham Heschel: “Just to be is a blessing; just to live is holy.”
relationships. If gratitude and thanksgiving are at the heart of my life and I learn to see the world through that experience, I begin to see the graciousness in the actions of others, even the small ones. I am often struck by how seldom people say “thank you” to others. People enrich our lives each day and we forget to thank them. Even if what they do is done out of obligation or without thinking, saying “thank you” acknowledges that in some way they have blessed my life and this can remind us of the most fundamental blessing, the gift of God himself. Saying “thank you” also moves me beyond entitlement or my feeling that something is due to me. It reminds me, in the words of Abraham Heschel: “Just to be is a blessing; just to live is holy.”
In the first chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul begins to lay out his argument that all of us stand in need of God’s saving grace. He is going to paint a picture of sin and its devastating effects. I find it interesting and profoundly humbling that a fundamental aspect of sin is ingratitude and the failure to give thanks (Romans 1:21). Happiness is not truly possible without a profound sense of gratitude and once we realize that and live in that reality, it is easy to express thanksgiving to God and those around us, but especially to God. And once we have learned to live that way, happiness follows. It might not be happiness as the world defines it, but it is a happiness/joy/contentment/satisfaction/peace that the world cannot take away.
Peace
