A friend wrote to me and reminded me of a commentary from Chuck Colson on Breakpoint from all the way back in 2005. It has aged well. That’s because, despite how much things have changed, despite how much more chaotic the headlines might be today, the core truth is the same. A posture of gratitude is one that recognizes whose world it actually is, and where we fit in to God’s overarching plan to make all things new.
Here is the transcript from Chuck Colson’s commentary from 2005, talking about gratitude:
The notion of gratitude is hot these days. Search the Internet, and you’ll find more than a million sites about thankfulness.
For example, university psychologists recently conducted a research project on gratitude and thanksgiving. They divided participants into three groups. People in the first group practiced daily exercises like writing in a gratitude journal. They reported higher levels of alertness, determination, optimism, energy, and less depression and stress than the control group. Unsurprisingly, they were also a lot happier than the participants who were told to keep an account of all the bad things that happened each day.
One of the psychologists concluded that though a practice of gratitude is a key to most religions, its benefits extend to the general population, regardless of faith or no faith. He suggested that anyone can increase his sense of well-being just from counting his blessings.
As my colleague Ellen Vaughn writes in her new book, RADICAL GRATITUDE, no one is going to disagree that gratitude is a virtue. But, Ellen says, counting our blessings and conjuring an attitude of to-whom-it-may-concern gratitude, Pollyanna-style is not enough.
What do we do when cancer strikes — I have two children battling it right now– or when loved ones die, when we find ourselves in the midst of brokenness and real suffering? That, she says, is where gratitude gets radical.
While they often mingle together in the life of a follower of Christ, there are actually two types of thankfulness. One is secondary, the other primary.
The secondary sort is thankfulness for blessings received. Life, health, home, family, freedom, a tall, cold lemonade on a summer day — it’s a mindset of active appreciation for all good gifts.
The great preacher and once president of Princeton University, Jonathan Edwards, called thanks for such blessings “natural gratitude.” It’s a good thing, but this gratitude doesn’t come naturally — if at all — when things go badly. It can’t buoy us in difficult times. Nor, by itself, does it truly please God. And, to paraphrase Jesus, even pagans can give thanks when things are going well.
Edwards calls the deeper, primary form of thankfulness “gracious gratitude.” It gives thanks not for goods received, but for who God is: for His character — His goodness, love, power, excellencies — regardless of favors received. And it’s real evidence of the Holy Spirit working in a person’s life.
This gracious gratitude for who God is also goes to the heart of who we are in Christ. It is relational, rather than conditional. Though our world may shatter, we are secure in Him. We can have peace in times of pain. The fount of our joy, the love of the God who made us and saved us, cannot be quenched by any power that exists (Romans 8:28-39). People who are filled with such radical gratitude are unstoppable, irrepressible, overflowing with wha C. s. Lewis called “the good infection” — the supernatural, refreshing love of God that draws others to Him.
That was Chuck Colson in a Breakpoint commentary from May 17th, 2005. It’s aged well because it’s a truth that transcends cultural moments and the challenges of one age to the next. That in and all were to be grateful to God for the fact that he is our creator, the fact that he has sent christ as our redeemer and he is overseeing the scope of history and allows us to be part of what he’s doing in the world. It’s always a good habit to take some time day by day to be grateful for the Colson Center.
Read More
BreakPoint