Tag Archives: Gratitude

Gratitude

Posted on by
2

A sex trade worker suddenly appears in the home of a prominent religious leader, just as he and Jesus are sitting down – well, lying down, actually – to dinner. The woman begins weeping, breaks open a jar of expensive perfume, and bathesJesus’ feet with it. Her tears also soak his feet and she dries them with her hair.The religious leader is indignant and Jesus responds with question about forgiveness and gratitude.

Who is more thankful, Jesus asks, the person with many sins forgiven, or the person with only a few? She has been forgiven much, he says, so she loves much.

And I’m thinking, ‘Is that how it works? We love Jesus because he forgives us?’ Because if that’s the case then our relationship with God will forever be based on our failings. If every moment of our relationship – our love of God – requires us to re-iterate our list of failings…  Well, that can’t be healthy, can it? Is that what God wants – for us to continually wallow in the mire of our own sin so we can continually acknowledge how great he is?

I think something else is going on here. I think that Jesus might have been the first man who truly saw her, who ever truly heard her, who ever recognized who she was as a person. He might have been the first man who didn’t want something from her. His forgiveness isn’t a pronouncement that the slate has been wiped clean, that her criminal record has been erased. Instead, it’s a recognition that she has value, that she has worth, that she is loved and treasured. I think that for the woman at the center of this story, gratitude represents a form of healing, an expression of wholeness. It represents the validation that – no matter what has happened in her life – she is worthy of love.

Gratitude is an expression of healing. It’s the transformation of pain and suffering to life and hope. And, at it’s core, gratitude is a recognition that someone else has validated our worth, acknowledged our value and shared their desire to be with us. In gratitude, we return that love

 

Giving Thanks

Posted on by
Reply

Today we talked about gratitude. Not surprising, given that this is Thanksgiving Weekend. We started with a piece of card stock and some colored magic markers. Everyone wrote down 5 things they were thankful for. I was really surprised at the variety of responses.

I was also surprised at how many people’s names were on the card. I guess we have our hearts in the right place. I put ‘coffee’ on the list but I have no idea who the kindred soul is that wrote ‘espresso’.  Hola!

We then had a lengthy conversation around the couches about gratitude. And I have to tell you, it was a really, really great morning.

At the end of the day we cut the poster up and everyone took a piece home.

And I’m grateful for you, for this beautiful community, for the way in which Spirit God weaves his love among us. It’s go good to be a part of this.

 

Movement

Posted on by
Reply

Often I have conversations with people about Third Space and they say, “I’ve heard it isn’t like a traditional church.” And I’ve learned to say something like, “Well, no, it isn’t,” and let it go at that. Then I wait for a second question. That second question doesn’t always come but when it does I try to tell a story about what our community is like. I used to think Third Space was important because it was the only alternative to ‘business as usual’ in Peterborough’s church world. I’ve come to realize the importance of this community lies in its understanding that another way is possible: another way, that is, of interpreting what the Spirit God is doing in our city, today. And we don’t have any particular Utopia in mind, and we don’t have a map, and we don’t have any particular attachment to a cause beyond this Jesus God person, but we’ve started out on the journey together.

We’re willing to say, “Let’s see what happens next,” while, at the same time, listening and watching for what God is doing now. I think God can work with that. I really believe he is, and I keep seeing him among us, again and again.

I love being a part of this.

Advent Meditation

Posted on by
Reply

My friend David Sheffield at Story Collector posted a rather astounding, powerful and gripping meditation for this month of December,  “potent with symbols of change, connection and celebration”…

This isn’t the sort of thing that can’t be written when one is  20, and I, for one, could not have fully appreciated reading it at that age, either. It takes time, and a certain amount of weather, and having your boots muddied a time or two, to be able to say what David has said here.

It’s called, ‘Gratitude‘. Don’t miss it.

Word*Up, Community and Bearing Witness to the Truth

Posted on by
Reply

Another World is Possible

Word*UP – What an amazing night. Spook Red Menace Guiry, Allan Reeve, Rhonda-Marie Avery, David Sheffield, Ted Amsden, K.C. (rockin’ the house) Ziy Sah, and Uncle Doug Mackenzie. How fantastic was that?

In Word*UP we’ve created a place where poets, musicians and spoken-word artists can gather and showcase both their talents and their creations. Because I’m hard-wired to think this way, I’m always looking for how the Spirit is present in our monthly gatherings at The Spill. I’m always impressed by the quiet, gentle and powerful spirituality that lies just under the surface of our work. I also find myself challenged by points of view that I hadn’t considered, and am sometimes confronted by beliefs that are not consistent with my own. And in being confronted I have to recognize that there is a truth being told in the midst of this experience and, as I listen,  I am bearing witness to the truth of another.

In a world of planned obsolescence, staged reality shows, disposable consumer goods, self-gratification as religion, and self as god, bearing witness to the truth of another is as revolutionary and as counter-cultural an act as any march or encampment: it does not tell the world that another way of life is possible but practices that way of life, even in the midst of war, madness and the self-imposed exile from true community that consumerism demands.

I think Word*Up important, and I think it matters. And I’m so very, very grateful to be a part of it.

Good Vibrations

Posted on by
Reply

In our discussion today we touched on something essential. We talked about how we tend to live our faith from inside our heads and need to embrace a ‘whole bodied’ Christianity.

The ‘right’ theology is not enough.
The ‘right’ liturgy is not enough.
Church also needs to feel right.

There’s two things that happened today that make me realize just how special this Third Space community is. One is the number of people who commented on how good it felt to be here today. The second is that someone can visit and immediately become a part of the discussion and be welcomed into the community.

I love being a part of this…

On Gratitude and Tears

Posted on by
Reply

A woman, an alabaster jar, anointing Jesus, weeping, her tears falling on his feet.

In Jewish culture there is the belief that preparing a body for burial is the purest gift because it is a good deed for which the beneficiary – the deceased – can offer no repayment. When Jesus tells us the woman has anointed him for burial he isn’t just hinting darkly at his coming crucifixion. He’s also telling us something about her.

I don’t think she’s weeping with gratitude only because Jesus had pronounced her sins  forgiven. I think she’s weeping with gratitude and love because despite her sin, despite her brokenness, there was a man who accepted her. Here was a man who saw who she really was, a man who heard the voice of her heart. A man who loved her. There’s a reason why so very few of us experience this depth of gratitude towards God. It’s because so many of us take that love for granted. We speak about his love in abstractions. Very few of us have the experience of knowing his love amidst our profound brokenness.

Without gratitude we can’t accept grace. Without gratitude we can’t worship, can’t pray, can’t open our hearts to what God wants to do in our lives. Gratitude begins as a response to what God has done but soon becomes so much more. It becomes the good soil in which seed is planted and, like humility, the empowering virtue which gives life to all others.

In our consumer-driven culture it’s so very difficult to replace our sense of entitlement with a spirit of gratitude. It requires discipline. It sometimes feels like work. Eventually, however, the heart overcomes the mind and the Spirit is allowed free reign. Gratitude becomes something more than a word, it becomes the spirit we bring to every conversation, every online interaction, every gathering of friends and family. It becomes present in hospital rooms and college dorms, in offices and workshops. It changes us.

And it changes our world.

Thanksgiving

Posted on by
1

“Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
Let the whole world know what he has done.
Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.”                     (1 Chronicles 1:8-9)

As I approach our Thanksgiving Sunday I’ve been looking at how gratitude is understood in the bible. One of the things I’ve realized is that in the Old Testament thankfulness is almost always connected to a proclamation. It’s not enough to have a grateful state of heart. It’s understood that this gratitude will ring out, that it will be shouted from balconies and rooftops.

Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!
      Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
 Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
     Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.                                                                  (vs. 23-24)

We’re uncomfortable talking about God in the ‘public’ areas of our lives. There’s some good reasons for this. When I spend time with Christian friends the topic will almost always end up being about Jesus-type things. But among friends and family who are not believers the subject almost never comes up without me forcing it to do so. I’ll never be combative or in-your-face about my faith. But I wonder, now that I’ve been dwelling in verses that say things like, “Tell everyone about the amazing things he does,” if my silence isn’t a form of ingratitude.

Maybe that’s not what it is at all. Maybe I don’t see God do a whole lot of amazing things in my life – so I don’t have a lot to talk about. And I wonder… do I need to see amazing things happen in order to be grateful, or do I need to be grateful in order to see amazing things?