Auto, Deep, & Hard
Usher in the season for traditions!
This past week, many families began the season of celebrating and incorporating a variety of traditions - some rooted in generations past and some birthed new in hopes of leaving a legacy. Often celebrations and traditions are necessary to help remind us and recalibrate us to the importance of godliness, thanksgiving, and worship. God set this system up in the Old Testament by incorporating feasts and holidays as a means to remind His people of His faithfulness. And while much of our holiday season has been commercialized and secularized, this time of year should still be a season where the Christ follower celebrates the coming of Peace and practices the discipline of gratitude.
Discipline is rooted in training: instruction and practice will help elevate one’s skills. The discipline of gratitude requires a daily grind and a specific focus to choose gratitude when it is easier to grab at comparison and covetousness. Personally, I want to have better responses during this holiday season. I want to embrace Colossians 3:16, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” I want to expand my instruction on gratitude so that I am practiced-up to respond with deep thankfulness, regardless of the tangibles or the circumstances. I want the message of Christ to dwell among me, literally integrated with every breath, every step, every heartbeat. Yes, the Holy Spirit is present with me in all places, but I want to be more disciplined in my responses to Him during this season. So, in an attempt to better practice gratitude in my own life, I have compartmentalized varying forms of thankfulness into three categories.
Auto Gratitude
This is the type of thankfulness that is often taught to children. Some of us practice this type of gratitude in our adulthood, too. However, we often procreate automatic responses that come more from a place of repetition or habit than a place of concentrated thankfulness. I think of the instruction I give my own children, “Make sure you say thank you.” The instruction is correct but it needs to be coupled with the recognition of what we are truly saying “thank you” about. Do we recognize why we say thank you? Or is it just habit when someone opens a door for us, picks up our dropped item, or hands us our food? Manners are necessary, and I am in no way arguing for their removal, but I want to be more conscientious this season to express genuine gratitude in the small places.
This season, may we make small adjustments to our everyday practices to pause long enough to know the why behind our verbal gratitude. May we see people that we typically automatically pass by, may we truly mean the automated “thank you’s” that we share, and may we be disciplined in our spiritual walks to take gratitude off auto-pilot and instead take the time to genuinely thank the Savior, for even the small things.
Deep Gratitude
This is the type of thankfulness that comes from a place of recognition of the value of what was received. We’ve likely all been there in our adulthood, in a place of such need that we are so very aware of every possible change and outcome to our situation. These are the moments where others often step in with the type of grace that radiates and pulsates through our devastation and resurrects a second change or a new beginning. Maybe it is the random Christmas gifts that appear on your doorstep. It could be the professional that volunteers his or her time to meet an expensive household need. Maybe the childhood friend calls and checks in at the perfect time. Or it is the fellow believer that prays the exact prayer in a given moment that ushers in the breaking of chains.
This season, may we open ourselves to others. May we allow them to step into our needs and heartbreaks and be the hands and feet of Jesus. In their giving, we experience deep gratitude because we know the cost, the expectancy, and ultimately, the miracle. May we also be willing to play that role in the lives of others. May we take this season to show gratitude to our Lord by loving on His children, by taking risks to show up in someone’s sadness to share with them the Hope of the World.
Hard Gratitude
This is the type of thankfulness that tends to be manipulated by feelings and emotions. Honestly, gratitude doesn’t come naturally when we feel cheated, gypped, or forgotten. In hard circumstances, we have to make a more conscious thought to utilize disciplined gratitude. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in hard places more often than in the places we would label “good.” Which likely means we find ourselves without gratitude more often than with. Holidays can easily be “hard” for so many reasons and it can be equally hard to display honest gratitude during this season. I get it, we count our losses and our lacks all too well and neglect the counting and collecting of the small but present joys, blessings, and hopes.
This season, may we all count differently, even if it is hard. Yes, let’s label our hurts and lament those to our Lord but may we also label our blessings and present those to our Lord. Genuine gratitude will expand your heart and prepare you for new gifts like peace. This isn’t a rosy, all-is-well facade, but it is a godly, disciplined practice that we can adopt: “give thanks in every circumstance” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
We are quickly approaching the end of 2022. For some of us, that comes with great relief as it has been a trying year. I am sure you have a list, likely just a mental one, that tallies all the difficulties of the year. I have one, too. But God has been working in my heart and pressing me towards practicing gratitude despite the tangible list. Not that I thank Him for the trials, but that I thank Him despite the trials. Maybe that is what He has been impressing on your heart, too. Gratitude despite the tangibles or circumstances. Genuine gratitude in the small, automatic things of life. Deep gratitude in both the giving and receiving. Practiced gratitude even in the hard. It begins with recognizing our response options and then purposefully choosing to take the option of thankfulness.
This season, may we all work on placing Christ at the center of our traditions and implement gratitude in new ways, new places, and in all three stages: auto, deep, and hard.
Until next time my friend,
I invite you to grab a cup of coffee, tea, or chai and sit with me. If you haven’t yet purchased God’s Big Ask, you can do so here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGKHY7KM
