Happy Thanksgiving! I mentioned this last Sunday, but I absolutely love Thanksgiving as a holiday. Nothing beats Christmas, but Thanksgiving is close. Lots of great food, typically decent weather, and Lions football. Plus, the added benefit of officially starting the Christmas season the following day. I know some of you have been listening to Christmas music for several weeks already. Forgiveness is available.
No doubt this coming week you will hear something about the benefit of regularly giving thanks . More and more people recognize the important role an "attitude of gratitude" can play in your overall health. I was reading a book from a non-Christian author last week and found this advice regarding how to handle stress.
"Taking time to contemplate what you're grateful for isn't merely the 'right' thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis, showed that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy, and physical well being. It's likely that lower levels of cortisol played a major role in this improvement. The Davis study participants had one simple task: Pause during the day to contemplate what they were grateful for. Lowering your cortisol is that easy."
I'm all for lowering cortisol, but this does feel a little scientifically cold and calculated. =) We definitely don't want to start thinking of gratitude as a transactional activity. You put your 5 minutes of mental thanksgiving in and get a 20% reduction in stress levels. It does make sense that a life of thankfulness would have real physical and mental benefits, and we can appreciate those without letting them become the primary motive behind gratitude.
Scripture provides a multitude of reasons to practice thankfulness, but I'll just remind you of one, from Psalm 100. Many people know this psalm as THE Thanksgiving psalm and for good reason. Verse 4 exhorts us to enter His gates with thanksgiving and to give thanks to Him. Verse 5 then follows these commands by giving us a reason why:
"For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, And his faithfulness to all generations."
We praise God with thankfulness because He is good. Why do you say thank you in everyday life situations? Gratitude shows a recognition and appreciation of a gift that someone did not have to give and yet, out of the goodness of their heart, they did. You CAN say thank you when receiving a pay check for hours worked, and your heart probably will feel thankful that you actually got paid. However, when someone at work remembers your birthday and drops off a cup of coffee and a donut at your desk, true thankfulness blossoms in your heart. The "thank you" you speak will be filled with honest appreciation for the unmerited kindness that person showed you. Especially if it's single origin coffee and a cake donut!
Psalm 100:4-5 binds gratitude and goodness together. We enter God's gates with thanksgiving because of His faithful goodness. But the pathway from God's goodness to our thankfulness also works the other way. We practice thankfulness to remind ourselves of God's goodness, and this is necessary because God's goodness is often challenged in day to day life.
We inhabit a broken and difficult world. Relationships rupture. Bodies wear out. Sin disrupts and destroys. All of these confront our belief in God's goodness. But this is a belief worth fighting for because it's true. His steadfast love does endure forever. He's gracious and kind and every good gift comes from above (James 1:17). The practice of thankfulness will give you fresh eyes to once again see His goodness.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday that is filled with the goodness of God!