Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Eucharisteo Day 20... who knew gratefulness would play out like this?


grate·ful
ˈgrātfəl/
adjective
adjective: grateful
1. feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful.
synonyms:
thankful, appreciative;
indebted, obliged, obligated, in someone's debt, beholden

I love words. As nerdy as it may sound, I find a lot of comfort in the trusty dictionary & thesaurus I  have on my bookshelf. 

I love how sometimes I can think I know exactly what a word means & then WHALAH! It means something completely different. 

It’s that way with the word ‘grateful’. I mean, I knew the basic meaning of the word but hadn’t ever thought about how ‘showing an appreciation’ fit in. 

Oh I am grateful… for far too many things to even begin to count.

But do I show it? Do I put words to & actions toward my gratefulness? 

Romans 12:1-8 is a precious reminder of what serving out of a grateful heart looks like… 

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

 Hmmmm... true gratitude... it's more of an action... a life poured out for others. 


“To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. 
Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him.

Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. 
For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. 
And that is what makes all the difference.” 
-Thomas Merton 
 



























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