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Which do you like better sour or sweet? I much prefer sweet, especially when it comes to people. Have you ever noticed how the older people get the more they become one or the other, sour or sweet, grumpy or grateful? You know what I mean. I'm talking about the grumpy people in your family who harp with increasing frequency and disgust on the same issue year after year. And then tragically, in the ripeness of old age, the sour toxins of their grumpiness have their poisoning and hardening effects. The pretense and posturing of younger faces fully fall away. Everything becomes sour for them.
I don’t know about you, but that is not what I want for myself. I want to instead be like a friend of mine who, at 98 years young, is full of joy. Life is sweet for her. It is not, nor has it ever been, free from hardship. The sickness she has is painful; it will take her life. And as an African-American woman, she has seen a century’s worth of difficulty and hardship only she could know. Still, she’s grateful to God for every day she is given. Her heart is open and alive toward others.
Even though her house is hot and smells funny, I look forward to our visits. The sweetness of her joyous spirit lifts my countenance and inspires my heart. There’s just something about her gratitude to God for life’s little things—a good breakfast made by her nephew, my reading of the 23rd Psalm, a good night’s rest.
She could gripe about her aches and pains and no one would hold it against her. Yet, she tells me on those nights when she does painfully cry out to God, she is reminded about the goodness God has shown her over the years. Her heart then fills with gratitude’s peace and joy. She finds herself receiving the life God has for her with grateful hands. It’s not just having a positive attitude that accounts for this shift in her perspective. It’s her gratitude in relationship with God through Jesus that makes the difference in her attitude. She knows experientially God’s grace and love for her. And so, she goes through her days looking for God’s kindness toward her in whatever comes her way.
I am impacted by the example of her life, just as I am by those sour grumps out there. Both cause me to reflect on who I am becoming and make me wonder which will I be like, if one day I reach a ripe old age. My heart’s desire is to become more grateful not more grumpy as I go through my days. What does God say about this in his word, in the Bible?
As you might expect, giving gratitude to God is prevalent throughout the biblical witness. “Give God thanks, for He is good and his love endures forever” is the joyous chorus proclaimed repeatedly. What strikes me about this, however, is not that the biblical writers give God thanks. Rather, I am struck by God’s faithfulness in showing his goodness and enduring love to each subsequent generation. It is who he is; it is who he always will be. I am also struck that such goodness and enduring love, inspires these people to give gratitude to God regardless of their situation. Even more, the Apostle Paul bears witness that doing so leads to receiving a divine peace that protects our hearts from the toxic effects of our fretful and troubling situations (Philippians. 4:17-18).
Life within Christ’s grasp is not life free from hardship and difficulty, but it is life empowered by his everlasting goodness and gracious love for us. No matter what life brings our way, whether blessing or hardship, nothing can separate us from Christ’s gracious grasp of love. Life doesn’t have to make us sour. But if it has, the gracious love we experience in his grasp can and will transform us; it can and will sweeten us with gratitude when we receive him. As we do, his gratitude will begin to fill our attitude just like it does my friend. In gratitude, our hearts will experience, and become protected by God’s divine peace.
May Jesus meet you where you are with his grasp of gracious love. May you know the peace of receiving life with grateful hands to God.
Gratefully in Jesus' Grasp,
Mark |
