We Can Recover Something Valuable!
I suspect there are people reading this who remember when The Christmas Holiday season did not begin until the Friday after Thanksgiving. In our rush to start the holiday season earlier and earlier we've lost something very special. Back when we waited until after Thanksgiving, it was Thanksgiving with the focus on giving thanks and gratitude, that offered a fitting start to the Christmas season. I have become convinced there is something very special, valuable and powerful when we let Thanksgiving and its focus on gratitude usher in this most precious season.
Bill Gove referred to gratitude as the “Queen” of emotions. What he meant, is gratitude opens our hearts and spirits to some of the most significant and important experiences of life. I'm talking about love, joy, peace, and more. Gratitude has an incredible power to lift us out of life's difficult and challenging moments. It frees us to experience the love, joy and peace that give our lives a sense of meaning, purpose and significance. I don’t think there can there be a better way to prepare for a meaningful and joyful Christmas season.
Gratitude can be a part of our lives in a variety of ways. One of the most obvious and easiest ways is when it simply bubbles up and captures us. Examples of this can include a word of encouragement or appreciation offered by somebody close to us. Or it can be a special gift that touches us very deeply, triggering gratitude. Sometimes gratitude can bubble up as we look at it a family picture or remember a special family tradition. And there are still other times that gratitude can come out of the blue catching us totally off guard and by surprise.
A second way we experience gratitude is by taking time to reflect back on experiences in our lives. Sometimes these experiences are fun and joyful to remember. Other times we can find ourselves reflecting back on moments and experiences that in their time seemed disastrous. But we now know they worked out for the best and we are filled with gratitude. Often in these times we can discern a power greater than ourselves having a hand in our lives (for me this is God).
The third way is most challenging and yet potentially most rewarding. This is to focus our thinking on something different than our present painful or difficult life experience. It's no secret our world is filled with suffering and heartache. We all can recall such moments. As a pastor it breaks my heart when I encounter people who are locked in a terrible cycle of recounting the wrongs that have been done them or the pain that they are experiencing. It’s like they are trapped in a prison of pain and heartache. It doesn’t have to be this way! Paul gives us an alternative in the 4th chapter of Philippians, urging us to think about the things that are true, honorable, just, pure and more. This is not wishful thinking. It is in reality shifting our focus to the arena where gratitude reigns. This can become the entryway into joy even in the most painful and difficult circumstances and we often encounter God in the process or at the very least, better prepare to re-discover God is with us in the manger as a small baby!
Grace and Peace, John