Gratitude is Good for You!

A Time for Giving Thanks

Gratitude is good for you.

I remember when I was in early elementary school coming home and laying out for my mother all the things that had frustrated or upset me that day. Looking for a more fruitful approach, she made a rule that I needed to share 3 good things that happened first, and then I could share whatever I wanted. Certainly there were the days when I would rocket through three good things to get to what was really gnawing on me, but most of the time, by the time I had told three stories that I was thankful for, the pains and frustrations honestly seemed less significant or important. I felt better and I continued on, focused on the good that was and the good that could be.

Gratitude is good for you.

Science seems to suggest that my mom was on to something. Many studies in the last decade have recognized a strong correlation and some have suggested causation between gratitude and host of benefits from personal happiness and resilience, to social and physical health.

Gratitude is good for you.

These benefits often get amplified by the fact that gratitude can beget more gratitude, as we train ourselves to see the good that we are given, and as we practice sharing and receiving thanks with those around us. Hopefully, we all know how good it feels to be appreciated, and the lightness that can accompany working or living in places where appreciation is regular and apparent.

Gratitude is good for you.

And yet at times it is hard to get started. Times when our fears and concerns are so big that there doesn’t seem to be room for anything else. Times when honest frustration and anger nuance every good thing we can think of until it is hard to say we are truly thankful for any of it. Times when we find ourselves hanging on a cross of our own or someone else’s making, consumed by the anguish of the moment. And yet even here, there is One to be thankful for: the God who is bigger than our fears and concerns, the God who welcomes us – frustration, anger and all, the God who hung on that cross - going all the way to hell and back to ensure that nothing could separate us from the love of God. It is this uncompromised, uncompromising love - that is for us, in spite of us, that meets us where we are and calls us out of ourselves for our sake and for our neighbor’s sake, this love that the world cannot kill, and that will wipe every tear from our eyes at the end of it all – this love, that we can always give thanks for. And from such a firm foundation, who knows what more is possible?

Gratitude is good for you!

And so, this Thanksgiving I offer you a song that I wrote for the fall meeting of the Conference Deans. The chorus contains a table prayer that you will likely recognize, and each one of the verses points to the abundance of gifts and folks that we can be thankful for every time we eat.

May God bless you and fill you with good things this and every season! And may you have eyes to see them, and the joy of giving thanks for them!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Grant Applehans
Associate to the Bishop
Director for Evangelical Mission