THE DISCIPLINE of GRATITUDE

 OCTOBER 10, 2022

I pray that you have or had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend filled with many blessings.

GENESIS 1:12c

And God saw that it was good.

MARK 6:37-44

37 But Jesus said, “You feed them.”

“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”

38 “How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”

They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”

39 Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.

41 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. 42 They all ate as much as they wanted, 43 and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. 44 A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.



Gratitude is a spiritual practice of seeing and celebrating the good in the world around us. This is not an easy task. The culture around us shoves us toward a focus on what is wrong or bad and needs to be fixed now, or what crisis needs to be prevented, or the newest gadget or invention to make our life better. Culture creates, it seems to me, a dissatisfaction about life that makes it difficult to practice the spiritual discipline of Gratitude.

I find, maybe you notice this too, that learning to notice the good things around us takes practice, we have to work at it. Here is some “Good News” for us to remember that every time you “flex your gratitude muscle you get stronger, more grateful.” It feels good to be grateful. When we are grateful/thankful people our connection with God who is the source of all goodness becomes closer and more intimate.

Today in our Gospel reading I want you to notice that this story is saying that we do not need to look for big miraculous things to be grateful for. There is an old song that used to be sung titled, “Little is Much When God Is in It.” In Mark 6 today Jesus is revealing that gratitude can begin with something very small. Yes, “Little is Much When God Is in It.” Look at the Gospel again, it is a day when it seemed like Jesus and his followers wouldn’t have enough to eat, Jesus looked up to heaven and thanked God, now notice this, thanked God for the food they had (Mark 6:37-44). When Jesus did this, (Gave Thanks) the little they had multiplied from 5 loaves and a couple fish to abundantly feeding 5,000 plus men, women and children.

I wonder if the Gospel take away today is to encourage us to pause and begin our gratitude practice by simply noticing what is good in the world around you. Perhaps we need to be reminded of what God saw when he looked at the world he created, Genesis 1:12c says “God saw that it was good.”

TAKE AWAY


What is good in the world around you right now? Example: If the chair you’re sitting on is comfortable, thank God for that.


During your day, make it a point to notice one thing that’s good.


Before you go to bed tonight, think back on your day. What was good today that you can thank God for? Making a list of these might be good practice.

LET US PRAY

God, thank you for the good you put in our lives everyday. Reveal your goodness to me that I may learn the spiritual practice of Gratitude. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”