Gratitude

The leftovers are long gone, but our thanks-giving deepens within us as we begin Advent preparations and Christmas celebrations. Afterall, isn’t that what lies beneath our hustle and bustle, giving thanks for the blessings in our lives? The parties, the gifts, even the holiday cards – these are small tokens we give to people as a reflection of the gratitude we feel for their participation in our lives. And let’s not forget the extra charitable giving so many of us do this season as we become acutely aware and grateful for our material security. Even as we feel harried and tired and stretched thin, deep down, we still recognize that virtually everything we do for others during the holiday season is an expression of gratitude for them.

But, gratitude is not just for a season. It is also a characteristic of a fully functioning person. Martin Seligman, founder of the field of Positive Psychology, along with a research team of top psychologists, identified Gratitude as one of 24 primary strengths of character that humanity has valued across time and culture. Gratitude is a sense of joy and thankfulness when we receive from others. In their international survey published in 2004, Gratitude was one of the five most common character strengths endorsed by virtually all 54 industrialized nations studied, including Americans. We are not simply a people who set aside one day every year to express thankfulness; we value and cultivate it year round.

As we should. Gratitude is not a mystery of our faith, like the incarnation or the resurrection of Jesus. However, gratitude is one of the primary means by which we touch all the mysteries of our faith. The Latin for gratitude, gratia, means grace. When Christians use the word grace, we do so as a proxy for the word God. Grace refers to the tangible, felt presence of God in one’s life. Through grace/gratitude we become fully human, connect to our deepest core self, become more capable of reaching out to others, and join in fellowship and intimacy with God. Gratitude brings the recognition that I am not the author of my life, that I do not control the goods I have or even who I am. Gratitude is recognizing that all the goods of life and even life itself are gift, that someone beside me has given to me every single thing that I know to be good. Scripture talks about each of us being created to praise and serve the Lord. Gratitude is praising the Lord, thanking God for whatever good-ness, large or small, we see in our lives.

Advent is a time of preparation, preparation for the coming of the Lord into our hearts and into our world. And gratitude is one of the primary ways we prepare for and open ourselves for Jesus’ coming. Yes, we can easily bemoan the fact that this time of year is too commercial, too busy and too little associated with God. But, when we instead deepen our sense of gratitude, we open ourselves to grace, to Emmanuel, to God-with-us.

Sure-Fire Way to Enhance Your Life

Psychologist Ken Sheldon from the University of Missouri-Columbia found something interesting about enhancing our experience of life. Ken asked students to keep a journal on a weekly basis reporting five things they were grateful for. Compared with students who reported five hassles or neutral events on a weekly basis, students who wrote gratitude items reported that they exercised more, that they felt more optimistic about their upcoming week, reported fewer physical symptoms, and indicated they felt better about their lives as a whole. You may have heard of the research that suggested that watching funny TV/movies while sick could help you heal more quickly. Now it appears that you can simply “count your blessings” if you want to be healthier and happier.

Examining why this might be so, research is finding that counting your blessings impacts how you experience your present life. A gratitude focus prevents you from taking the good things in life for granted, what psychologists called hedonic adaptation. Gratitude fosters moral behavior and enhances social bonds. When faced with a problematic life experience, those with a tendency to count their blessings are more likely to positively reinterpret the event. And, not surprisingly, practicing gratitude tends to inhibit negative emotions such as envy, bitterness, anger, and greed.

Centuries before positive psychologists looked into the phenomenon, Christians have been guided towards an attitude of gratitude. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.” 1 Timothy 4:4. Earlier, Jesus taught that nothing that entered our bodies made us impure, a basic stance towards the goodness of all creation. But, an attitude of gratitude is not just a New Testament edict. The first things we learn about God are that he speaks, he acts, and he expresses gratitude, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was good.” Genesis 1:3-4. To live with a grateful heart and mindset brings you closer to God’s heart and manner of thinking.

The end of the academic year is a particularly good time to reflect on areas of gratitude over the course of the past nine months. For those graduating in two weeks, this is a particularly good time to reflect on areas of gratitude for your past 4-5 collegiate years. What are you most grateful for this year? What are you most grateful for over your college career? Counting your blessings this way will bring you closer to God and bring you more awareness of your truest, deepest self. Done regularly, it will also deepen your joy in life.