Transforming Lives Through the Power of Gratitude

Paul says about people to whom the goodness of God The Wonder of Life the richness of it should be apparent for although they knew God they neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him but their thinking became futile and their foolish Hearts were darkened there is a connection we'll talk about it more as we keep going along between thinking and thinking there was actually an old pietist expression that to think is to thank. [00:01:00]

One of the difficulties in our day is that we think wrongly about life secularism has taught us to think of creation Our Lives time as simply some neutral thing that is just there and an individualism teaches us to focus on am I gratified am I happy is the universe devoting itself to what I want to have happen and so we think about it all wrong our thinking has become futile and our thinking does not lead to thinking when thinking is done right it leads to thinking. [00:01:37]

He recognizes now that it is much Beyond his control and that he has been given gifts that he was not aware of and there's a scene towards the end of the movie where he's in the little cemetery plot where his wife Martha's buried down and telling her you can't seem to find a meaning in life he can't find it in this war he can't find it around the family table and then the church bells peel. [00:03:40]

An angel named Clarence takes a suicidal George Bailey played by Jimmy Stewart on a tour of Georgia's world as it would have been if George had never been born rather than asking George to count His blessings Clarence the angel allows him to observe a world in which those blessings never came about this exercise forces George to realize just how rare and precious the good things in his life actually are which cures his despair. [00:05:28]

Thinking about the ways in which an event might not have occurred make that event seem more surprising one of the Hallmarks of surprising events is that they illicit feelings which is not the case when we encounter events or situations we take for granted or that have become routine. [00:06:10]

I mentioned earlier in this series uh GK Chesterton who's kind of the patron saint of gratitude one of the things that Chesterton wrote is that the world will never starve for want of Wonders but it will starve for one to wonder and he would often talk about how certain things are immutable laws of Reason two and two or four we can't imagine that otherwise. [00:06:28]

But much else that is in our world is in the realm of imagination we could easily imagine that trees would have leaves that are very different uh colors or even bear things that are not fruit that would be strange and uh Fantastical things in other words Chesterton says what we failed to do very often is to consider the mystery that there should be something rather than nothing. [00:06:54]

Surely it's more probable if secularism is all that there is it's more probable that there would have been nothing at all that there should be a world that's staggering and that there should be the world in which we live whether it's color and sound and sight and bodies and children are born it's a staggering thing and the Ancients knew enough to wonder at it. [00:07:19]

But see if our thinking is not to be futile then it needs to lead to thinking it's not just that it's mysterious and marvelous and mystical it's that it's good and it is a gift and so I am much obliged to give thanks and that is the delightful obligation so we do that now I want to invite you to begin to reflect for a few moments. [00:08:09]

In gratitude we think about and affirm the good but there are many ways to think about the good things in our lives and each may not have the same power to Kindle grateful feelings for this exercise think about how a positive event or experience in your life might not have happened or might never have been part of your life. [00:08:49]

We become more aware of benefits that we still have but previously took for granted mentally subtracting something good from your life can make you more grateful for it one of the ways that I practiced this was to think about many years ago when I was in school and my teacher Jerry Hawthorne among a few others challenged me you should think about going to Fuller Seminary. [00:09:24]

My life would have been impoverished in a million ways all because of that one gift which did not have to be it could have been otherwise so for you what's the relationship what's the opportunity what's the experience what's the place think about an aspect of your life for which you feel grateful and then write about the ways in which this might never have happened. [00:10:06]