Gratitude that Moves Us

Gratitude is an important sort of thing. Without it, we can fall into the pattern of searching out the negative. Of living in the dark. Of taking for granted and throwing away.

This is the time of year for gratitude and thanks. And while I sit here looking around my house, watching my children play, safe and secure, it’s not so difficult to be thankful. I have been given much.

And yet day in and day out, perhaps gratitude isn’t quite so easy. We see what we lack. We see things others have that we don’t; we feel a peace or a security or a joy in others that we notice lacking in ourselves. The grass always looks greener. Maybe not for you, but for me at least, I get stuck in that trap.

While my children are playing in their room, I thought I would take a minute to check my Facebook, and I came upon an article by my local news service. It was about a Christmas party at a church a mere twenty minutes from my house. 90% of the children at the associated school receive free hot lunch because they are either low or no income families. A volunteer at the school became interested in the home lives of these children, and started the tradition of this holiday party.

Attached to the article was a list of items that the “children” asked for. I put children in quotes because many of these children were also parents.

The young ones asked for hats and blankets and books. The older ones for laundry detergent and cleaning supplies and devotional books.

Hmmm. This sounds a lot different from the version of poverty we hear sold to us – a poverty consisting of iPhones and $100 shoes. These people don’t have any phones, and the shoes one family asked for were harder soles slippers for their child because their whole apartment is tile, and it gets cold in the winter. And they sleep on that tile floor just like most of the families listed. Some had asked for pillows.

I don’t want to tell you all to be grateful for what you have because you could have it so much worse. Because we already know that. And it sounds like pity.

These people don’t need pity. They are not creatures to be stared at from miles away. They are real. And multi-dimensional. And just as human as you and I.

I doubt they want pity or that they want their lives to merely be a window we look through in order to appreciate our own more.

Instead, I would encourage gratitude, but then I would ask what that gratitude will move you to do. Gratitude living in our hearts can bring us great joy, but gratitude living in the world can help to change the world.

There are things, small and large, that you can do right this very moment to change this world we live in. What is your gratitude leading your heart towards?

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I pray this holiday season brings you much to be thankful for.

“To whom much is given, much will be required.”

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