When Gratitude Gets Complicated [Gratitude Series – #2]

Last updated on: November 20, 2012 at 3:21 pm by Christopher Smith

When Gratitude Gets Complicated [Gratitude Series – #2] 2012-11-20T15:21:12-05:00 Christopher Smith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This week I am doing a daily series on gratitude, since this virtue plays a vital role in our understanding of Slow Church, and since of course, our readers in the U.S. will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday later this week…

Yesterday’s post: Rooted in God’s Abundance

Also, Top Ten Books on Cultivating Gratitude… (via Englewood Review of Books)

I’ll admit, I’m a little wary of people who are effervescently thankful for things in their lives — especially on Facebook at this time of year. Well, OK, I am pretty suspicious of most people who are effervescent about anything. In a blog post this morning, my friend Ragan Sutterfield got it right, I think, that we need confession before giving thanks:

So before Thanksgiving, we would do well to prepare in these days before not only by making lists of what we are thankful for, but also in confessing all of the ways in which we have manufactured our own blessings in impatience and greed, in exploitation and violence.

We should always be thankful for the people in our lives: friends, neighbors, sisters and brothers in Christ, even our enemies, but our gratitude for things should always be qualified. We should be required when giving thanks for a thing, to say WHY we are thankful for it (an unenforceable law, I know). Doing so, would cause us to reflect on and evaluate the origins of our gratitude. If as Ragan suggests, confession precedes thanksgiving, and if we articulate why we are thankful for particular things (not people) in our lives, I think we will be well on our way toward more authentic gratitude.

In her excellent new book Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us (which, by the way, is a the top of the above list of books on cultivating gratitude), Christine Pohl devotes an entire chapter to complications in gratitude. In addition to issues of justice, like those that Ragan names, Pohl points out that gratitude cannot be coerced (which makes me wonder about the forms of coercion in the shared prayers and songs of our churches). She also identifies the complications of “gifts we don’t want or aren’t sure how to use.” She says: “Acceptance or rejection of gifts requires discernment on the part of leaders and communities. A designated gift can reshape a particular ministry and require allocations of time and resources that don’t fit the the community’s capacity or purpose.” Similarly, she also examines the gifts that come to us in broken people and how we discern whether we are able to absorb the brokenness and utilize that person’s gifts. All of us, of course, are broken, but the question that Pohl is exploring is those situations when the brokenness of a particular person might pose a substantial threat to the common good of a community.

As we give thanks — not only in this holiday season, but throughout the year — may we be cautious and mindful of the complications of gratitude.

Tomorrow: The scriptural witness to gratitude…

Previous Post

November 19, 2012

Rooted in God's Abundant Provision [Gratitude Series - #1]

Next Post

December 4, 2012 Waiting in Expectation for Christ's Coming in our Midst [Living Into Community #1]

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abundance Advent Books Community Conferences Conversations Ecology Economics Emergent Eucharist Family Food Gratitude Happenings Health history Hospitality Justice Lent Meditations Neighborhoods News Peace Place Poetry Politics Sabbath Scripture Stories Technology The Table Theology Uncategorized What is Slow Church? Youth

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 March 2016 June 2015 March 2015 February 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the name "Isaac" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

He rules He fights He prays He laughs