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 is an offering?

We pastors have heard many of the jokes that circulate.  There's the one about the airplane which is losing altitude fast and the stewardess says to the pastor on board, "Can't you do something?"  She gives it some thought and then takes up an offering. Ha!

You and I both know that isn't an offering.  (What it is exactly I'm not so sure: desperation?bribe?  payment for services anticipated?)  An offering is a gift.   A child draws a picture for his teacher and with reverence, offers it to her as a token of his esteem.  A neighbor loses a family member and you carry over a dinner as an offering of friendship.  Offering is gift; offering is thanks and honor.

Thanks for being alive.  Thanks for someone's help.  Thanks for gifts received, both now and in the past.  Thanks for safe travel through the storms of loss and depression.  Thanks for beauty and grace and joy.  Thanks that I have and can therefore can help provide for another.

Thanks and honor.

Yes, the Bible makes it clear that God has asked all those who honor God as God to offer back to God's work in the world one tenth of what they have, a tithe. God gave it all to you and only wants 10% back to fill in the places where more is needed........which is primarily in your heart because once it's in our wallets we then to think that our goodness put it there.  Setting aside a portion of our earthly goods to God's work is a regular and healthy reminder that all good things come from God in the first place. It is a way for us to be partners with God in the work of this world.  It is a way of giving thanks and honor.

It is also a source of JOY!  You are pleased to give it and often see new places where your gifts would be helpful.  Joy. Thanks. Honor.

You certainly can think of it as obligation, burden, expectation, even legalistic. But you are missing out on all the fun.  It is truly a blessing to be able to offer a gift, it connects you to your neighbor and opens your heart to the world around you.  You can write a check to the church or you can make an offering so God's work can be accomplished.

Wouldn't it be sad to be the person who had nothing to give?

In for a nickel, in for a dime

Do you know this saying?

It means, once you've decided to do something, there is no point in holding back.  Give it a good effort, a full effort. Do what needs to be done.  Spend what needs to be spent (penny wise and pound foolish fits here too).  If you're going to have fun, have fun!

Or, you could say.....if you are only going to spend what you aren't going to miss you'll probably end up with something that gives little pleasure.  In for a nickel, in for a dime.

This applies to being a servant of God as well.  If you are going to serve, serve.  Experience the power of giving more than just the leftovers, or the ends of the loaf of bread, or the broken cookies, or (my most famous example) canned peas.  Give.  Step out.  Risk that little bit more.  Serve.

When you are ready, let's sit and reflect on what it was like to give more than you planned, maybe even more than you thought was possible.  Good?  Too much?  Changed your perspective?  Left you exhausted?

What wonderful conversations these would be.  Let me know.

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?

What's in your treasure chest?

What is it you treasure?

Family
Friends
Health
The joy that reading provides
Meaningful work
Beauty in nature, painting, music

All this in a world where God holds me fast and calls me beloved.

My 'treasure' pays the electric bill, my health bills, my mortgage, the car.  All of these things make my life much more comfortable......but none of them is true treasure.

Take a moment and decide what is true treasure in your life....and then go about living out that truth.

Don't preach to me about money

I've thought that.  Have you thought that? For 3 weeks we will hear Jesus teach about what we should do with our money, how it can drag us down spiritually, how it makes a difference eternally, and we want to say, "Don't preach to me about money."

Don't make me feel guilty.  Don't tell me that it will all work out OK when I'm worrying about getting through the month.  Don't compare me with people living in Bangladesh.  If I lived in Bangladesh, I wouldn't drive to work and pay $3.70 a gallon for gas.

Of course I should feed the hungry.  Most of the time, 'the hungry' are sitting at my dinner table.  Of course I should help provide clean water for our global neighbors who have none.  I'm trying to keep my water bill manageable with 3 teens taking showers.

Of course I should help build a pre-school in Zambia; in the meantime I trying to figure out how my kids will afford college.  And don't talk to me about retirement....who's going to retire?

I know that all of this is true.  Finances will stress a relationship faster than almost anything else.  So how do we find a path - a path that is faithful to Jesus - in the midst of God's concern for the poor and the aching feeling that I'm on the verge of being 'the poor'?

Because we want to be faithful to Jesus!  Jesus' love for me is at the center of my life, my sense of worthiness, my ability to forgive others.  How can I faithfully use the money that God has entrusted to me for the sake of the whole world - including my family?

There is no simple answer to these questions but there are a couple of places we can begin the conversation. We will look at having some knowledgeable people teach about budgeting, saving, investing and sharing our money.  Some folks will learn how much that fancy coffee each morning costs them in a year and decide to give it up for another purpose.  Some folks will learn that they are doing all they can.  Watch for news about this.

But there are also spiritual exercises which will help us too.  When we re-focus on giving thanks - always watching for places, times, people, events we can give thanks for - the pressure of 'not enough' begins to recede.  Giving thanks gives us relief from the terrible 'not enough' pressure.

Timothy tells us that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Not having what we think is enough money can be the greatest temptation we will ever face.  Let's figure out how to do this together as a community of faith.

Expendable, invisible, outside the gate

Wow!  I wouldn't want to be that person.

Luke 16 tells a parable about an impoverished man named Lazarus (the Lazarus who was raised from the dead is in the gospel of John) who sits outside the gate of a great mansion.  Every day rich and influential people are invited through the gate for a great feast.  Every day Lazarus sits outside, clothed in sores and hungering for the leftover crumbs from the feast.  Crumbs never come his way, even though the rich man knows him enough to know his name and recognize his face. Lazarus was, in fact, the rich man's neighbor.

We as a society have a thousand ways of making that person know just how unwanted they are.  We pass them by without a glance or nod....or in the case of Lazarus, a crumb of bread.  We never bother to learn their names; they are never really people to us.  They are urban furniture; landscape anomalies; obstacles to avoid.  Even though they sit right outside our door day after day.

What would it take for us to see them as lost sheep?  As beloved children of God?  As the very persons we are sent to give care to?  What would it take for us to conceive of our wealth as a tool in our hands to ease the suffering of at least this one person?  We cannot fix it all - but do we get a free pass on fixing any of it?

What does the good news of Jesus look like when you encounter one of the expendables?  When you are one of the expendables?  How loudly would you cry for justice then?

Over the top

"Really, that's more than enough."

The last time I said that someone was dishing creamed spinach onto my plate.  I really don't like creamed spinach.  Really.

But beyond that last episode, when did I last say, with all sincerity, "No, really, that's more than enough."

I worry about my own acquisitiveness; my desire for more without any real insight into what I truly need more of and why I might need more of it.  Do I need more free time?  more exercise?  more retirement savings?  more clothes?  If those blessings fell into my hands today, would I be more content?  A better neighbor?  More able to contribute to the well being of another?

What exactly do I want more for?     Who will that more serve?

Stewardship: the care of everything under your authority part II

One way of thinking about our stewardship choices is to consider what else out there is competing for our attention, our money and our time.

Our neighbor Tom Henry (writing as Stewardship Teacher for St. Marks, Baldwinsville) reflects on the competition between everything else and the enormous entertainment industry (think video, iPad, iTouch, gaming, TV, sports).  Talk to my grandparents or play Candy Crush on my phone?  Participate in a fundraising event or watch a movie on my computer?  Get dirty planting trees or play a little golf?  Sacrifice for others or entertain myself? 

"This is the reality of being in stewardship. Everything is a choice and not all the choices have the same marketing budgets.  How do we, as God's people, compete with the tempting and expensive world of entertainment? How do we convince anyone that their money and time buy more in service to others than in amusing themselves here and now? There is a multi-billion dollar industry working to convince you that I am wrong. I have a single, 2000 year old book to convince you otherwise. 

I am convinced that we at St. Mark’s [and Luther Memorial for that matter] can fund any ministry we think is important enough to fund. We can afford our building and every program we can think of within it and outside it, if we truly believe in its importance. It is a faith challenge to give money. So [any] stewardship drive will be about money, but it also must be about faith. In the face of overwhelming competition for dollars, dedication, and devotion from a very entertaining world, the love of God through Jesus Christ must still be most important. And the stewardship challenge is to convince congregations to demonstrate that in their giving."

Thanks, Tom, for laying this out for us.  

A life of generosity in all things

You chose to skip the chemical weed killer on your lawn this year.  You are convinced it is not a good choice in the long run for you or the environment.

Recycling is a way of life in your household.  You don't even really think about it any longer.  Waste and landfills sum up your reasons.

Six different activities demand your attention on a weekend and you decide that your family needs to slow down, eliminate distractions and play together more often.

Perhaps you have never realized: you are a steward: of creation, of resources, of your time.  Although we generally call it 'budgeting' you are also a steward of your financial resources.  You decide to devote a portion of your earnings here (mortgage, summer camp, Wi-Fi) and you decide not to devote money there (snowmobile, European vacation, designer clothes).  We devote our time to the causes we think are important.  We devote our family's resources to activities that build us up as family.  Lots of things cry out for your attention, your time and your dollars.  You need to make choices and allot varying amounts of each in your role as steward. 

What we value is revealed in the choices we make.  That is, we wish to support those things we value with our time and resources, and allow the others to fall by the wayside.  We put our 'money' where our values are.  "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Thank you for giving me the time it took to consider this post. 

How can I help?

 

"How can I help?"

This is the first step in living a generous life - or maybe generously living life.  Either way, it is a beginning from which we can grow and mature like fruit from the vine that is Christ.  Someone could use your help today.  Be sure to offer.  It is the whole reason God has given you so many gifts.  Wherever you are, is where you are needed.

Too many folks think that they must be rich before they can be generous.  Folks who think like that are rarely rich enough to start being even a little generous.  Generous folks look at their resources and see how they multiply when shared with others. 

"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."  Hebrews 13.16

Add or subtract

“In every encounter we either give life or we drain it; there is no neutral exchange.”
                                              -- Brennan Manning

You and I and everyone around us are stewards of life.

 

Life flows, either in or out. Life is never stagnant.

  

 

You and I are either making things better or we are making things worse. 

 

We are either giving grace or causing shame.   We are stewards of life.

"By this they will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another."   - - Jesus

Generosity

Generosity is not an accounting of coins.


 It is a condition of the heart. 


Exercise your heart.

Blessed? Bless!

It's not about how much you have or how much you give away.

If you can look at your life, your hands, your family, your job.....add anything you want....and call yourself  'blessed' than turn around and bless another.

Thanks and kudos to Chris Syrell for this succinct insight.  Thanks to God for the blessings which pour down upon us - and the opportunity to pour out blessings on others.