Transformative Power of Gratitude in Daily Life

"Gratitude is powerful in both dimensions but it's worth paying attention to the remembering self. This impact is so strong Michael doesn't mention this in his email but it's a study that I happen to remember that involves colonoscopies. Excuse me for mentioning that if you haven't had one yet be grateful if you have be grateful that they invented them." [00:01:31]

"So we tend very much to take away with us from an experience the last part of it, and what that means Michael said is I find it very helpful when I come to the end of my day to be thankful, and I was thinking of a statement in the Psalms where the psalmist says the whole Earth is filled with awe at your wonders." [00:02:37]

"His dad about two years ago had a care crisis and Michael brought him from Montana to another state to live with him. Here's what Michael says he is 90, has Alzheimer's, cannot remember anything. Having him live with me has been remarkable in several ways but one of the most impactful has been seeing the world through his eyes." [00:03:43]

"He cannot remember anything in the past and he cannot contemplate the future. Instead he simply notices the present. When I take him for a walk he will comment on how beautifully blue the sky is that day or how lovely the leaves on a tree look or note the sound of birds or laugh at a passing child on a bike." [00:04:11]

"He truly is a living walking example of Jesus exhortation to considering the Lilies of the Field or the birds of the air and wonder at the goodness of God. Experiencing his simple life as he loses his cognitive abilities has been transformative for me. When I brought him here I did so mostly out of a sense that it was the right thing to do." [00:04:41]

"The great Thanksgiving is an invitation that is offered to Believers in Jesus to all human beings to celebrate what God does in this simplest kind of way, the way that Michael is describing in his father the way that children do, and if we cannot become like them we cannot enter into the kingdom." [00:05:23]

"In the Liturgy of the Lutheran Church once the offering and communion bread and wine are brought forward to the altar the minister enunciates what's called in the Lutheran book of worship the great Thanksgiving. I love that title the minister say will the Lord be with you and the congregation says also with you." [00:06:22]

"And the minister says it is indeed right and salutary it's fitting it's appropriate it is good for us and it is just it matches the warp and the Woof of the world that we did not create that we should at all times and in all places offer thanks to God at all times in all places." [00:07:09]

"Oliver Sacks said that he asked the nuns this was at a Catholic Hospital one time do you think he has a soul and that they were greatly offended by this question, and they took all of her sacks one day to the chapel and they watched as this man who through his whole life had received the Eucharist." [00:07:47]

"Eucharist is the Greek word for thanks the meal of thanks to God the last supper for the blood that was shed and the body that was broken, and they they had Oliver Sacks look at how this man's face became suddenly composed and now his body which was so often Disturbed and agitated and troubled during the day was at peace." [00:08:56]

"And I want to invite you today to walk through life the way that Mike's dad does as much as possible, forgetting what is behind as the Apostle Paul said, and trusting God for what will come after, right now observing, that's a gift and that's a gift and that's a gift God thank you God thank you God thank you." [00:09:37]

"And then tonight when you go to bed when the day fades, pause, make your last thought a thought of gratitude, make your last word a word of Thanksgiving, as my friend quit used to say, we have a lot to be grateful for." [00:10:18]