11-25-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
November 25, 2023
Tomorrow, we will spend an additional day focusing on gratitude, specifically its connection to grace. But before we jump there, I am drawn to some words I read in a recent Sojourner Email Blast, where they quoted Diana Butler Bass (from her book Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving). There, we find the words:

Gratitude is, however, more than just an emotion. It is also a disposition that can be chosen and cultivated, an outlook toward life that manifests itself in actions—it is an ethic. 

Notice how she uses the words ‘chosen’ and ‘cultivated’ when speaking of finding this disposition of gratitude. Those who truly choose it and cultivate it on a regular basis will find a disposition—might we even call it a holy temperament—taking hold of our way of seeing the world and living in the world. As Diana Butler Bass suggests, this way of living can become an “ethic,” which I believe will honor God and the ways of Jesus.

​If it can be chosen, Lord God, I pray for the strength to choose the way of gratitude. And if, in my choosing, I can grow even more deeply committed to the idea of giving thanks in all circumstances, I will do so with your help. May it be so! Amen.