Introspection: Lessons in Gratitude

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Lessons in Gratitude

Give thanks in every situation because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (CEB)

Just open your eyes

Just open your eyes

And see that life is beautiful

From "Life Is Beautiful" by Sixx:A.M.

As I've written previously, I spent some time at the end of 2017 looking over my journal entries from the past year, and I noticed that I tend to lose sight of what's good in my life because I'm so focused on what's missing in my life.  I already knew that the remedy for my problem is gratitude, but, at the same time, I realized that I had done nothing to practice gratitude.  With that in mind, I made a New Year's resolution to become more grateful.  As a first step, I decided to make it a daily practice to record in my journal at least one thing for which I can be grateful.

We all know that we must consistently put our muscles to use if we want them to grow stronger.  I think that maybe the same can be said of gratitude, hence my daily practice.  I'm hoping that, by practicing gratitude daily, I will become more naturally inclined toward gratitude and become, as a result, a more happy person in general.

Having practiced gratitude daily for almost a month, I've learned a few lessons in gratitude.

I've remembered how important it is to be grateful for the ordinary things and to not take them for granted.  I'm grateful for good food, whether it's a meal I order at a nice restaurant downtown or leftover ham from Christmas.  I'm grateful for workdays that are not hectic.  I'm grateful for times when I find a table at a busy coffee shop.  I'm grateful to learn new routes to the places I want to go and for the online maps that make such opportunities possible.  I'm grateful for modern medicine, particularly the over-the-counter medications that give me relief from sinus headaches, which I experience rather often.  I'm grateful for the notes of encouragement my mother leaves me.

I've learned that part of practicing gratitude is taking the time to actually enjoy the things for which I should be grateful.  In my neck of the woods, there were some bitterly cold days this month.  As I drove to work on the morning after New Year's, I noticed on a bank sign that the temperature was eleven degrees Fahrenheit.  One week later, as I was leaving work for the day, I checked a weather app on my phone and saw that the temperature had risen to sixty-three degrees.¹  Thankful for the warmer weather, I realized that it would be a shame not to enjoy it, so I decided to go for a walk at a nearby park.

Practicing gratitude daily has given me the opportunity to learn about, in the words of St. Paul, "giv[ing] thanks in every situation."  Though I might not be thankful for the situation itself, I can look for reasons to be thankful in the midst of it.

On one Wednesday after work, I looked back on my day and had trouble coming up with reasons to be grateful.  It wasn't a particularly bad day, but I had plenty of reasons to complain.  I was tired all day; my shoulder muscles were sore, perhaps from tension; and my computer was giving me trouble.  I turned my attention to what I was doing at the moment.  I was grateful for places where I can sit with my computer and record my thoughts, like the bookstore cafe in which I found myself at the moment.  I was grateful for the coffee I was drinking.  I was grateful for the music app I was using, which has introduced me to a lot of music I might have never heard otherwise.

Practicing gratitude has encouraged me to rethink my perspective in life.  I tend to focus on the roadblocks I face, but I'm beginning to see that often there are more roads than roadblocks.

On one Saturday morning, I was meeting some people to do some work at a food bank, and I had planned to eat at a nearby restaurant beforehand.  When I arrived at the restaurant, I realized that I had made a logistical error, for the restaurant would not open for a few hours.  By tapping a single button on my phone, I found another nearby restaurant that was actually open.  One week later, I needed to print an article for Sunday school, and, as I've lamented previously, my printer is out of commission.  I learned that I can print documents at a nearby office supply store for a very small fee.

One unexpected benefit of my discipline of daily gratitude has been the opportunity to chronicle more parts of my life, particularly the good ones.  Last year, I tried to make it a point to periodically "check in with myself" - in other words, to process, in writing, what I was feeling at the time.  Far too often I ended up writing about how tired I was or how frustrated I was about certain parts of my life.  My practice of daily gratitude has given me the opportunity to write about meals I've shared with people, randomly running into friends when I was out and about, meeting friends for coffee, experiences with my church small group, and signs of growth in my life.

The circumstances of my life haven't really changed very much in the past month.  What has changed is the fact that I've chosen to turn my attention to different things in my life.  I've come to the conclusion that gratitude does not negate the bad things in life, but that it instead reminds us that the bad things do not negate the good things.  I encourage you, dear reader, to consider ways in which you can cultivate gratitude.  As for me, I will continue my current practice of daily gratitude for the time being, and I will look for other ways to focus on gratitude this year.


Notes:

1. Welcome to South Carolina!

The photograph featured above was taken by Wikimedia Commons user Infrogmation in the grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in New Orleans.  It is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: No Pretending Allowed

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

No Pretending Allowed

"Ananias," Peter asked, "why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?  While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?  And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal?  How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?  You did not lie to us but to God!"

Acts 5:3-4 (NRSV)

It's your life

What you gonna do?

The world is watching you

Every day the choices you make

Say what you are and who

Your heart beats for

It's an open door

It's your life

From "It's Your Life" by Francesca Battistelli

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that the earliest Christians adopted not just a new set of beliefs but a new way of life.  They lived lives of fellowship and prayer, shared meals together, and strove to follow the teachings of the Apostles, who had been Jesus' original disciples.¹  The early Christians claimed ownership of nothing but rather held all things in common so that nobody in their community was ever in need.  Many sold their property and brought the proceeds to the Apostles to distribute as needed.  One man, who was known to his friends as Barnabas, sold a plot of land that belonged to him and laid the money from the sale at the Apostles' feet.²

Following suit, a couple named Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property that belonged to them, but they secretly stashed away some of the money from the sale.³  Ananias brought the remainder of the money to the Apostles, under the pretense that he had brought them the entire amount from the sale.  The Apostle Peter said to him, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?  ...  You did not lie to us but to God!"

Upon hearing Peter's rebuke, Ananias immediately fell over dead.

A few hours later, after Ananias' body had been buried, Sapphira arrived, and Peter asked her whether or not she knew that her husband had kept part of the proceeds of the land they had sold.  She confirmed that she did indeed know.  Peter rebuked her and told her that the men who had just buried her husband had returned to carry her out of the house as well.

Sapphria, like her husband, fell over dead upon hearing Peter's words.

Fear spread throughout the community.

Before I continue, I would like to address the elephant in the room.  Typically, when we read this story, we are quick to assume that God struck Ananias and Sapphria dead because of their sin, but it is possible that they were both struck dead by their own fear.  Scholar William Barclay suggests that, given the mindset of the day and the high esteem in which the community held Peter and the other Apostles, it is possible that Peter's rebuke evoked a deadly terror in Ananias and Sapphira's hearts.⁴  It is quite possible that heart attacks can be brought on by terror.⁵

In the picture St. Luke paints of the early church in Acts, we can see a culture of radical interdependence.  People trusted not in themselves solely but in one another, and this trust gave them the freedom to give fully of themselves.  In What is the Bible?, Rob Bell observes,
It's interesting to note that of all the things Luke could tell us about the early church, one of the most important things he wants us to know is that in the early church, you weren't on your own.  There were other people looking out for you, others had your back, others would step in and make sure you had what you needed.⁶

Barnabas's act of generosity was also an act of faith, for Barnabas had put all of his faith in Christ and in the Church that Christ had come to build.  He gave fully for the sake of others in his community, because he fully trusted the others in his community to do the same.  Ananias and Sapphria wanted to be a part of the community of faith, but they had not given themselves to the way of life of the community.  They weren't "all in," so to speak.  They still trusted in money, so they had to make sure that they kept some for a rainy day.

Was it so wrong that Ananias and Sapphira wanted to keep for themselves some of the money from the sale of their own property.  Was it so wrong that they did not want to give up everything they owned?  Was it so wrong that they actually wanted some money to their name?  Maybe Ananias and Sapphria were wrong to hold back some of the money, but that was not the reason Peter rebuked them.  When Peter confronted Ananias about his deception, he said to him, "While [the land] remained unsold, did it not remain your own?  And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal?  How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?"

The problem was not that Ananias and Sapphria kept some of the money from the sale of their land but that they pretended that they gave all of it.  In other words, they were hypocrites.  A hypocrite is an actor, someone who makes a life of pretending to be someone he or she is not.⁷  Rob Bell notes that "few things will kill the life of a community faster than pretending."⁸

Hypocrisy is one of the most common accusations lobbed at the Church, and the story of Ananias and Sapphira shows us that the Church has been dealing with hypocrisy since its earliest days.  I would wager a guess that a vast majority of those of us who call ourselves Christians are not quite where we know we ought to be on the journey of faith, but that is no reason for us to pretend we are something we are not.  The world is watching us, and, though we are not expected to be perfect, we are expected to be honest.

If, like Ananias and Sapphira, you know that you're not quite where you ought to be - that you're not "all in" - be honest about it.  Don't pretend to be something you're not.  I can assure you that you're not alone.  Remember that we participate in the Church to become more Christlike, not to pretend that we are more Christlike.


Notes:

1. Acts 2:41-47
2. Acts 4:32-37
3. A majority of this perspective is based on Acts 5:1-11 (NRSV).
4. William Barclay.  The Daily Study Bible Series: The Acts of the Apostles, Revised Edition.  1976, The Westminster Press.  p. 44
5. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scared-to-death-heart-attack/
6. Rob Bell.  What Is the Bible?: How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything.  2017, Harper One.  p. 236
7. The Greek word hupokritḗs, from which we derive the English word hypocrite, literally means "actor."  (Wiktionary: "Hypocrite")
8. Bell, p. 237

The Death of Ananias was painted by Raphael in 1515.

Perspective: Hallmarks of the Humble

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Hallmarks of the Humble

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

James 4:10 (CEB)

Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours

Give me open hands and open doors

Put Your light in my eyes and let me see

That my own little world is not about me

From "My Own Little World" by Matthew West

My personal Bible study for the past week, the first week of the year, took me through part of the Epistle of St. James, a letter written by one of Jesus' brothers to some of the early Christians.  A recurring theme I noticed was humility.  At one point, James reminds his readers that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."¹  He goes on to encourage his readers to humble themselves so that God will build them up.²

Humility is a quality that is elusive and often misunderstood.  It is not, as some might think, the same as self-deprecation or low self-esteem.  It has been suggested that humility is not thinking less of oneself but thinking of oneself less.³  C.S. Lewis suggests that humility is actually a kind of self-forgetfulness.  Lewis also suggests that the moment one notices that one is being humble and starts to congratulate oneself for it, one ceases to be humble.⁴  In other words, humility is not a quality one can claim for oneself.

St. James, in his letter, helps us to see a number of hallmarks or qualities of humble people.


Humble people are peaceable.

James urges his readers to examine what guides their actions, warning them that, if they are guided by such "earthly, unspiritual, devilish" things as "bitter envy" and "selfish ambition," they will create "disorder and wickedness of every kind."⁵  He points out that people who are driven solely by their desires will resort to conflict and even violence to get what they want.⁶  N.T. Wright connects such a disposition to arrogance, the opposite of humility, "that says that my desires come first, that my cause is so important it's worth fighting and killing for."⁷

Humble people, on the other hand, are peaceable, for their actions are not guided solely by their desires, but are guided by a certain wisdom which James describes as "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy."⁸


Humble people are not judgmental.

James encourages his readers to live according to what he calls the Royal Law, the commandment given to us by Jesus, our King, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.⁹  He goes on to warns us that, when we speak evil of other people, we are placing ourselves above the Royal Law and setting ourselves up as judge over them.  "There is one lawgiver and judge," James says, referring to God.¹⁰  When we take it upon ourselves to do a job meant solely for God, we are essentially declaring that we are God.  This is the height of arrogance.

Humble people don't judge other people, because they view others as equals and try to treat others as they want to be treated.

I should note that holding someone accountable is not the same as judging.  Judging is a form of condescension, for it happens between a person and someone he or she has deemed inferior.  Accountability, on the other hand, takes place between equals, so it does not violate the Royal Law.  We should be willing to hold other people accountable, and we should also want others to hold us accountable.


Humble people are flexible.

James encourages his readers not to talk about what they will do in the future but to instead talk about what they will do if God wills it.¹¹  People are not always in agreement regarding what God's will is, whether it is something that happens or something we should strive to do, but either point of view can be helpful in this case.  Humble people are flexible in regards to their plans because they realize that they are not God.  They understand that they are subject to forces beyond their control.  They also realize that the purpose of life is not to serve oneself and that their own desires are not necessarily the same as God's.


So what steps can we take to humble ourselves before God, as James urges us to do?  Some clues, I think, lie in the aforementioned qualities of humble people.  First, we can remember that life is not all about getting what we want.  Second, we can remember that we are in no place to judge anyone since we are no better than anyone else.  Third, we can remember that we are not masters of the universe.  Perhaps, if we keep these things in mind, we will become more peaceable, charitable, flexible, and humble.


Notes:

1. James 4:6 (NRSV)
2. James 4:10
3. Such a quote is commonly misattributed to C.S. Lewis.  A more likely origin is the book A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. (2002, Zondervan.)
4. C.S. Lewis.  The Screwtape Letters.  ch. 14
5. James 3:13-16 (NRSV)
6. James 4:1-3
7. N.T. Wright.  The Early Christian Letters for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 28
8. James 3:17-18 (NRSV)
9. James 2:8
10. James 4:11-12 (NRSV)
11. James 4:13-16

Jesus Washing Peter's Feet was painted by Ford Madox Brown in the 1850s.