giving thanks

“What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God!” (Ps 92:1, The Message)

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, a day that we set aside to spend time recognising where our gifts come from. A day that we give thanks, not for the things but for His touch. A time to take the hand of God offered to us through the abundance around us.

“[G]ifts have no significance in and of themselves. Gifts only have meaning in that they trace the outline of God’s heart.” (Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience)

Cultivating a life of gratitude is really hard to do in our culture. Everything around us is designed to make us want more. The television is full of commercials which make us feel like we need to have the next thing.

Last summer I picked up a new phone. It is a Samsung Instinct. Sort of like the iPhone, but a lot cheaper. It was actually free with my service plan. The problem is, it does not do nearly as much as the iPhone. So even though it has a touch screen. I can surf the web, check email, take 2 mega pixel pictures, listen to music, organise my schedule with alerts to remind me so I do not forget an appointment, and play games. It even has GPS navigation on it (but that costs extra so it is not activated).

Oh yeah, and I can use it as a cell phone.

I still feel as though it is not good enough. There are some things I cannot do, like blog very easily from it. I cannot access Twitter for some reason. Every time I see an add for an iPhone, or hear someone talking about it I become less satisfied with my own. This happens more than just with my phone, however. I often become dissatisfied with what I have after I have it for a little while.

I start to think that I need something else.

This is why I feel convicted by the Heidelberg Catechism’s explanation of the fourth request of the Lord’s Prayer.

“Q: What does the fourth request mean?

“A: Give us today our daily bread means, Do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know taht you are the only source of everything good, and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing.”

Not even God’s gifts can do us any good without his blessing.

The things that God has given me don’t do me any good if I do not recognise the hand of the giver in the gift.

“[G]ifts have no significance in and of themselves. Gifts only have meaning in that they trace the outline of God’s heart.” (Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience)

I have to admit that an attitude of gratitude is perhaps the hardest thing for me to cultivate. My basic orientation is not toward peace, but toward restlessness.

This is why the psalmist says it is good to give thanks to God.

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;” (Psalm 92:1, ESV)

It is good, in the sense that it is right, it is proper, it is appropriate. It is good in the sense that not giving thanks is bad. But it is also good in the sense that it is pleasant, it is fulfilling, it is satisfying. It is good in the sense that not giving thanks is unsatisfying.

The Message puts it this way.

“What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God!” (Psalm 92:1, The Message)

It is a beautiful thing to give thanks to God, because giving thanks actually brings peace into our lives.

Researchers have studied those who kept gratitude journals and they have concluded that “at the end of ten weeks, participants who’d kept a gratitude journal felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about he future than participants in either of the other two conditions. To put it in numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full twenty-five percent happier than the other participants. Those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health complaints. People who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling more joyful, enthusiastic, interested, attentive, energetic, excited, determined, and strong than those in the hassles condition. They also reported offering others more emotional support or help with a personal problem–supporting the notion that gratitude motivates people to do good. And this was not limited to what they said about themselves. We sent surveys to people who knew them well, and these significant others rated participants in the gratitude group as more helpful than those in the other groups.” (from The Thousand Gifts: A Holy Experience)

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,” (Psalm 92:1-2, ESV)

“What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God! To announce your love each daybreak, sing your faithful presence all through the night,” (Psalm 92:1-2, The Message)

What a beautiful thing to give thanks.

What a beautiful thing to be able to look at the things we have and be satisfied. What a beautiful thing to be able to see God’s hand in all the gifts he gives us. What a beautiful thing to be changed from someone who is restless to someone who is peaceful.

What a beautiful thing to experience God in our daily lives.

“What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God! To announce your love each daybreak, sing your faithful presence all through the night,… You made me so happy, God. I saw your work and I shouted for joy.” (Psalm 92:4, The Message)

Ann Voskamp has begun something called the Gratitude Community. Is is a group of people on line who dedicate themselves to adding to their list of things they are thankful for, a Thousand Gifts list. She explains it this way.

“I am daily jotting down items on my Thousand Gifts List, working, one-by-one, up to a thousand gifts. Not of gifts I want. But of gifts I have.

“As the moments slip down the hour glass of time, I am scratching down the gifts—just as they happen, as they arrive, as they are unwrapped—that He has given that make my life grace, the daily graces that He gives in an infinite number of ways, that stir me.

“‘…windmills lazying in twilight’s last breeze…. soft wool sweaters with turtle neck collars…. the faint smell of cattle and straw….’

“I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber….from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen—the world is new and full of His gifts.

“Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don’t see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me.

“It is happening to me as John Milton wrote: “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

“Everyday epiphanies everywhere, indeed: gifts….Grace.

“‘… the smell of the florist’s… the sound of kernels of corn streaming, tinkling…. leaves floating in puddles…’

“Just writing them down as they happen.

“Yet my list is different than another’s for a reason: God has made me uniquely me. The Gift List is about gratitude… but it is more. It is about what defines me and my own personal identity. Reflecting on The Thousand Gifts List…

“…cracking open a new book… pushing children on the swing…. old men looking at cards in the stationery aisle…”

I am thankful for the things on it, yes, but I am also thankful that He has given the gift of me; that God made me who I am and I am one who sees and experiences the world in a way uniquely her own. The Thousand Gifts list is about the gifts Abba gives this child every day… and, ultimately, about the very gift of self, life as I know it.

“George MacDonald wrote, “No gift unrecognised as coming from God is at its own best…when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things.”

“When in all gifts we find him, then in Him we shall find all things.” (Ann Voskamp, from A Holy Experience)

When we open our eyes to see the hand of the creator in everything we have, then we will be satisfied with all that he has given us.

“What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God! To announce your love each daybreak, sing your faithful presence all through the night, Accompanied by dulcimer and harp, the full-bodied music of strings. You made me so happy, God. I saw your work and I shouted for joy.” (Psalm 92:1-4, The Message)

I have decided to join the Gratitude Community and begin my own 1000 gifts list. It is not much, but it reflects the things that I find God touching me.

1) a wife who loves me in spite of myself

2) pitter patter of little feet

3) smell of diesel smoke in cold air

4) rush of wind as I pull out to pass on my motorbike

5) parents who love me

6) crisp clean air

7) multitude of fall colours

May you open your eyes to see the hand of God in all the gifts around you.

May you begin to keep some kind of a gratitude journal, taking note of the things that are blessings to you.

In cultivating a life of thanksgiving to God, may you be changed from restless to peaceful.

May you be ushered into his shalom.