Gratitude as a Super Power

For what are you grateful this day?

Thus begins the Ignatian Examen, a spiritual practice for the end of a day which helps us examine our day.  The Examen begins with gratitude.  For what am I grateful today? 

As you sort through your day, seeking something for which you can express gratitude, you find your day transformed.  On wonderful days, you can’t help but be filled to the brim and over with the joy that erupts.  On your darkest days, this small moment of gratitude provides a light within the darkness and points towards hope for the next day.

Today, I give thanks for………..  This little exercise calls us back into relationship with the God of all creation, the one we call ‘good’.  It pulls us up, easing the weight of the mundane and inconveniences and reminds us of God’s presence and partnership in this experiment we call ‘life.’  In order to summon up a moment of gratitude, we must put down our complaints and wounds and sorrows……..even if just for a moment……and bring to mind that moment of grace or joy or forgiveness or kindness or respite which found us during the hours past. 

Gratitude resets our spiritual compass.  It is such an effective healing tool that spiritual directors, mental health professionals, and 12 step groups encourage the practice of naming the blessings we have received.  It is a practice that cuts across generations, cultures, racial barriers, and every other kind of divider we can imagine.   Where did I find life today?  Where did someone take care of me, protect me?  Who reminded me that being human is difficult work?  It is a beginning point for growing deeper in our relationship with God.

Both individuals and families can make Gratitude a practice.  Some folks use a Gratitude Journal, taking a moment every evening to identify places for gratitude in their life that day.  Some families use dinner time for conversation that includes this enduring question, “For what am I grateful today?” (Sometimes phrased and 'highs' of the day).  Both the very young and the very old can participate.  Some parents use that vital last 3 minutes before the lights go out for the night to have this conversation with their children.  Spouses can easily ask one another this simple question.

Practicing Gratitude is probably the most powerful tool we have in our tool box.  It will transform us as individuals, as families and as communities of faith.  No longer are we weighed down by our shortcomings.  No longer are we convinced that we have nothing for which to give thanks.  No longer do we move through our day unaware of the moments - large and small- where God’s Spirit of Life and Love is breaking into our day and making moments of gratitude. 

Even in times of loss and sorrow, recognizing a moment of gratitude can steady us and move us into the future. Practicing Gratitude will spill over into every aspect of your life; not because you will have more, but because you will see the giftedness in what you have received this day. 

Are you willing to risk being grateful?  How can you or your family begin to intentionally share your moments of grace regularly?  There are some clever ideas out there especially for including younger family members. (pinterest is always a good resource for these).

For what are you grateful today?  That simple question could transform your life.

What was the rich man supposed to do?

"So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God"  Luke 12.21


What is the rich man supposed to do?
He has too much grain.
His barns are not large enough to store it all.
He needs larger barns.


On the surface, it is a straight forward business problem.  Something about excess resources and not sufficient storage.  Leverage the loan for the new barns with a lien on the existing grain.  Get a low interest rate.  Not a hard problem actually.

Except that Jesus is not happy with this man and that causes us to pause and consider what the problem is exactly.

Was the man rich because he was a miser  toward all?
Was the man rich because hewas unscruppulous in business?
Is Jesus unhappy because the man is rich?

Or, was the man arrogant, parading his existing wealth and his new found luck in front of all the village people?
Was he the last man in the village anyone wanted anything good to happen to?
Is Jesus unhappy because the rich man is a serious pain in the neck?

Or, was the man so consumed by his own good fortune that he was blind to everyone and everything around him?
Was he a hoarder?
Is Jesus unhappy because this man is selfish and self centered?

Or, was the man so amazingly pleased with himself that he offered nothing to anyone, not even a word of thanksgiving to God for his abundant harvest?
Is Jesus unhappy because this man failed to praise God for this bounty that has fallen into his lap?

As much as we might look at this as a simple business problem, Jesus is very clear that this little parable is about greed.  Greed:  wanting it all for yourself.  Not just what you need, but whatever you can get your hands on.  Regardless of the needs of those around you.

Greed makes us blind: to others around us, to our own embarrassing behavior and to the God who gave us not just grain, but the opportunity to be a blessing to others.  This rich man squandered his chance to live out the mercy that our Lord so freely offered him.  He didn't even think about it.

As he lay there, dreaming of his brand new red barns, the undertaker was pulling up out front.  The opportunity was lost.  The barns were lost.  The money to be gained from the wheat was lost.

The rich man was lost.  I think, in the end, it was this that left Jesus sorrowing.

Generations, holidays, family and God

Much will be written about this time of frenzied activity between Thanksgiving and Christmas aka 'the Holidays'.  I'm sure I will be guilty of adding to the din.

And yet, it is a time of generations, probably the most cross generational events in our current culture.  It is a time of getting together - with extended family or with your extended family of friends.  It never goes completely right.  Someone has a meltdown.  Someone spills juice on the rug.  At least one dish is over or under cooked.

And yet, we gather together.  Even those of us with seriously unfriendly families try again to find a place where wisdom can be shared and each person can find a place where they truly belong. We seek again a place where we can plant our feet, feel solid ground under us, find safety in an increasingly unsafe world.  Even if we don't experience any of those things, we will try again next year, lamenting this year's failure to provide the sustenance we need.

The Bible was very concerned about generations (all those begats).  Part of it was to show lineage, but the other part was to demonstrate, with names and dates, that life is passed from one to the other.  God generates again and again in God's world.

So, how are we a part of these acts of generations?  If we think about belonging, having solid ground, feeling safe.....how do we live out our faith during these next 5 weeks of holiday craziness?  How do we grow spiritually....and help others to grow as well?

And the people of God say.....Alleluia

                             For what are we thankful?  How has God moved us to say Alleluia?

Couldn't help but notice that joy is a characteristic of Luther Memorial this past Sunday.  Lots of folks stood up and shared their answers with everyone and the whole congregation responded with an Alleluia.  All ages, all kinds of circumstances, all kinds of stories....lots of people wanted to say out loud that they have met God through Luther Memorial, or grown in their faith, or been cared for, or learned to pray.  New members, long time members, multi-generational members, young members.

This community, called together by the Holy Spirit is a vibrant, moving community.  God has called us together through the Holy Spirit, to worship, to be fed, to share and to serve.  God calls us beloved and sends us out to share that good news.  Isn't it time you invited someone to come and see what this God is all about?

How about this Sunday?

Lincoln again....giving thanks

Lincoln, the movie, is but one of the many ways we as a nation will be reminded of the wrenching violence and bitterness of the Civil War as we remember it on this 150th anniversary.  Lincoln penned many documents which commend themselves to us in the 21st century if not for their content, then for the beauty of his writing.

The Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863 is a perfect example and will surface in this blog several more times I am sure for it has powerful lessons on both a national and a personal level.

Let's consider the national implications.  Lincoln was president when our nation was doing its very best to bring to an end itself by shedding unfathomable quantities of blood.  Far from a confident believer, Lincoln nonetheless considered himself a tool in the hands of God ['...the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy..."]  When power and might were the recommended response to a recalcitrant South, Lincoln reached out in compassion ("with malice toward none ...and charity towards all" from Lincoln's second inaugural address) to brothers who had become the enemy.

In the midst of this blood bath, Lincoln found important things for which to give thanks which he enurmerated in his Proclamation officially setting the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. 

He sought the nation's care for the '...widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers...' on both sides of the conflict.   Beyond this is the closing

                "I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him...[they]

                fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the

                nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes ...'

In these words Lincoln captures that place which people of faith are asked to inhabit: the place where we are acutely aware of our deep seated shortcomings, willing to look to the Divine Hand to work in its time, and to accept that ultimately God will work for the good of all.  That kind of faith simply takes my breath away.

Who gets to sit at the table?

Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house meant sitting at the kids' table.  There were simply too many of us to fit around the other table.  I always felt slighted.  (I have often been prone to feeling slighted, but that's for another day).

My grandmother did not own a fancy dining room table, used only on Sundays and holidays.  In fact, my grandmother did not own anything fancy.

Hers was a 'farm table' - that enormous kitchen table that dominates a farm's kitchen.  It was the center for all life in my grandmother's house.  It was where bills were paid, arguments were started and resolved, forgiveness handed out.  There local stories were told, tragedies remarked on, children reprimanded, and of course, hardy meals of meat and potatoes accompanied by rhubarb or apple or cherry or quince pie were served.

In my mind, having a seat at the 'big table' meant belonging to this family.  Whether distant relative, cranky neighbor or complete stranger, being invited to a seat at the big table meant being a part of the family for this meal.

That is what it means in Jesus' mind as well.  It took a foreigner and sometimes enemy, a woman who would not take 'No' for answer, to bring this to Jesus' attention.   She knew that what Jesus was offering at his table could bring new life - and that's what her daughter needed right at this moment.  All she wanted was a few crumbs - because crumbs from this table were enough - and in her asking, Jesus begins to understand that the new life that will come through him is open to all.

All are welcome at the table.  Strangers, foreigners, children, cranky neighbors......sinners.  Come and eat and be whole again.