Grati-Whut?

Grati-What?

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16

You are my hiding place and my shield;
    I hope in your word.

Psalm 119:114

It’s a bit trite to say it but it’s true. We become what we dwell on.  Our minds, our very souls are shaped, or warped, by what we expose ourselves to and think about. The news, social media, and our own personal conversations and experiences collude to shape us and how we think and respond to the world around us. For some, habits of negativity start to form.

For most of us, it’s a mix of legitimately positive and negative moments in life that shape our hearts and attitudes. Bad things do obviously happen. Good things do really happen as well. No one is suggesting otherwise. The problem is, what do we dwell upon? Which list of actual good and bad things attracts our attention and inhabits our minds and hearts on a daily basis? 

The overall balance for some people is a bit off, usually in the negative. I once worked with someone who was a self-described ‘Debbie Downer’. She could see and immediately name the downside to every blessing. For some bizarre reason, she wore this identity (Debbie Downer) like a mantle. No good thing would ever get mentioned in her presence without her naming some way it might go sideways. 

But Pastor! Shouldn’t we be realistic? Bad things do happen. What’s wrong with naming them? Are you suggesting we should ‘Put on a happy face’ and deny reality? 

No. 

Not even a little. 

Consider this: the Bible never counsels someone to intentionally balance naming positive with negative events in their lives. 

Never. 

The Bible never even counsels us to ‘be realistic’.

The Scriptures counsel us to practice gratitude. There are loads of scripture passages that name and list genuinely bad things  (Job anyone)? At least half of the Psalms narrate genuinely negative realities for the writer of a given Psalm. There’s no indication that the Bible teaches us to paste on a happy face and pretend all is well when it is not. 

But you see, no one needs to tell anyone, especially the Debbie Downers in our lives, to list the negatives. Human nature being what is (sinful and rebellious), we are all too ready to go negative. Without any encouragement at all, our sinful nature functions to keep us busy noticing what is wrong in the world and with those around us. We need no help whatsoever. Giving it balance, might even be a sinful practice when we consider the regular admonition to be thankful. To practice gratitude.

What we need is to heed the wise counsel of the Bible to practice gratitude. This is what we tend to forget. To literally, out loud, say what we are thankful for. In other words, we need to establish the spiritual practice of naming what is good in our lives in spite of whatever else may also be true. 

We need no help noticing the negative.

For example, when my life is falling apart, It is still true that:

• I am a sinner redeemed by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.
• I am a child of God.
• I have value that has nothing to do with what I have or have not done.
• Repenting/turning to God is never off the table as long as I have a pulse.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

1Thessalonians 5:18

This Sunday, we get to focus on gratitude as we pivot from the exciting and challenging experience of renovating and moving into our new facility. The Lord has been gracious. But now, what is next? This Sunday we will get an experience of gratitude as we dedicate this new facility and ourselves to the work of Christ in the greater St. Louis area.

See you Sunday!

Pastor Mark