2022 Lenten study: From resentment to gratitude—week three
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TRANSCRIPT:
One of my devotions asked this question: what is your ideal day? If you could do anything in a day, no obligations, no requirements…what would you do? What is your ideal day? Take a moment to plan it in your head. Your ideal day.
In your ideal day…does God have a place in it? Mine, it would include things like this—mountains, rivers, our UMC camps, our lake, really enjoying God’s creation with #5 my family.
As I think about my ideal day, it is easy to put God in it. It’s easy to live this life of thanksgiving to God, to make space for God because there is nothing else, no one else impeding or interrupting this time that I want to spend. When I think about my ideal day it is easy to be grateful for all the blessings that God has given because I am getting to put those blessing, my favorite things front and center in my life and enjoy them continually for the whole day.
It’s easier to be grateful when you have had the ideal day and you feel all the good things of God around you. When things are going well and people are nice to you and there were no technical difficulties at work and you are feeling pretty healthy, when life’s good. it is easier to thank God. But, if you are like me, most days include things like this—empty cartons back on the shelf, unhappy kids, crammed schedules, and to do lists, tech trouble like the blue screen of death, or low battery always at the wrong time, car troubles, piling up housework, oops dinners, and then you see the news of another disaster or fire; most of the time our days are way less than ideal.
How do we find God in the midst of this mess? How do we live out one on my favorite scriptures? 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
It’s easier to see God when things are well but what about those times when things aren’t so good. I haven’t met anyone for whom life was ideal and perfect and without trouble every day. There are going to be valleys and troubles in this life.
How do we thank God with our whole heart, our whole life like the Psalmist when things aren’t so good? When we trade easy, ideal days for rough worldly days, how do we thank God in all circumstances? How do we praise God in the storms? How can we live in continual gratitude?
These verses from Thessalonians are inviting us into a transformational God centered life. These verses give us the recipe for a life of gratitude and joy despite our circumstances. Gratitude: giving thanks in all circumstances is difficult, but gratitude has a profound effect on our entire life, how we see the world, how we treat others, how we experience God, even on our health.
We have the choice to live with gratefulness or with spite. We have the choice to see the world and the trouble or to see God despite the world. It’s not to ignore the trouble, or pretend it’s not there, but instead to choose to see God and be grateful in all circumstances.
So how do we get there? How do we get to the place where we can say, “I give thanks to God in all circumstances.”
How do musicians or athletes or teachers or welders get better at what they do? They PRACTICE. Practice moves us closer to perfection, gets us into a habit of searching for ways to be grateful, so here’s a few ways that you could practice gratitude.
• Do the daily 10 begin and end your day writing down 10 things you are grateful for: creating a gratefulness journal.
• Take on the challenge of 365 days of thank you notes, one thank you note every day.
• Practice gratefulness by deliberately searching for something to be thankful for every time you get frustrated or see and hear about something terrible.
Fifty percent are doing just fine. I won’t be bored today. This is an opportunity to stop and read or pray. Disaster brings out the good in people by helping others and we witness generosity and gratitude at its best.
As we seek to formed by God, following the movements of the Holy Spirit, may we deliberately work on giving thanks with our whole heart and whole life in all circumstances. May we choose to be grateful every day. May our more troubled days, days when anger and resentment creep in, be transformed into days when we see God through eyes of gratitude. Amen.
