Nurturing and Strengthening Gratitude [Living Into Community #3]

Last updated on: December 18, 2012 at 2:50 pm by Christopher Smith

Nurturing and Strengthening Gratitude [Living Into Community #3] 2012-12-18T14:50:09-05:00 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 is the third in an Advent series of eight posts that will wind their way through Christine Pohl’s new book Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us (Eerdmans 2012 Buy now: Amazon // Kindle ). This book was chosen as The Englewood Review’s Book of the Year for 2012, and as I hope will become abundantly clear over the Advent season, it fits very well with what John and I have been describing as Slow Church.

[ Read an Excerpt of LIVING INTO COMMUNITY ]

The Previous Post in the Series…

After a chapter on the complications that surround the practice of gratitude in our churches (which I overviewed around Thanksgiving time here on the blog…), Pohl explores the things that strengthen and weaken the practice of gratitude in our churches. In this Advent season of hope, I’d like to focus on the ways that she suggests that we can strengthen gratitude. She offers a number of suggestions of how we can begin to live more fully into gratitude.

On a personal level, she recommends starting each day with gratitude for the gift of another day. She quotes William Law: “Receive… every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God’s goodness .. let your joyful heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a creator.” She also reminds us that saying thanks before a meal should have significance for us. God has provided this food for us — through the bounty of creation and any number of fellow humans who have worked to bring it to our table — and we should celebrate this food with gratitude.

Pohl emphasizes the importance of making room for gratitude in our personal lives as well as those of our churches. We should have space in our life together where we can express our gratitude publicly for God’ provision and for the gifts that God provides us in the brothers and sisters of our congregations. Many churches presently have — or have historically had — a time for sharing testimonies, and such times are important for cultivating gratitude together. We should take the time to write notes of thanks (or to express our gratitude in person) for the love and care that we are shown. “Our communities suffocate,” she says, “when we fail to express how grateful we are for the goodness we find there — the ordinary expressions of fidelity and love that are so easy to take for granted.”

Finally, Pohl drives home the importance of celebration for gratitude. The L’Arche communites deeply value celebration as part of their life together and Pohl quotes L’Arche founder Jean Vanier: “[Celebration] makes present the goals of the community in symbolic form, and so brings hope and a new strength to take up again everyday life with more love. Celebration is a sign of the resurrection which gives us strength to carry the cross of each day.” (55). She also quotes a Latin American refugee who chided a North American church worker who was working feverishly among refugees: “You are not serious about our struggle. Only people who expect to go back to North America in a year work the way you do. You cannot be serious about the struggle unless you play and celebrate and do those things that make it possible to give a lifetime to it.” (emphasis added). That last sentence gives a wonderful glimpse into the nature of Slow Church — committing a lifetime and taking the work seriously enough to play and celebrate.

In this Advent season, let us not get lost in the madness of the holiday season, but rather let us make time to be grateful, and in the coming Christmas season, let us celebrate with all joy and gratitude the gifts that we have been given in Christ Jesus, including our brothers and sisters in our local congregations!

Previous Post

December 17, 2012

The Cross and the AK-47?

Next Post

December 19, 2012 Trusting in a Promise-Keeping God [Living Into Community #4]

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 is the main literary style of Psalms and Proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Apocalypse Prophecy Poetry Historical narrative