Let me guess: You read the title and now you can’t stop humming the tune, huh?
I apologize in advance. Well, not really, since there are worse proverbial songs stuck within our collective crawls. I love the invitational tone in the old hymn, though. It’s as if we can accept or decline, sing along or sit it out:
“Come on, y’all! We’re gathering all grateful people for a potluck. Let’s bring the harvest home.”
If invitations made it to every mailbox in America and gratitude was the only prerequisite to the party, I wonder how many takers there’d be? Really. Think about it:
Before Black Friday deals danced in our heads as we pretended to reverently pray over the Thanksgiving turkey on Thursday, the only real gripe that got in the way of gratitude (once upon a time) was the fact that we had to endure the in-laws or an obnoxious uncle or two.
But today, the tenor has changed…and not for the better. Can’t you tell? Just the other day, I heard an ad in my periphery that pushed taking advantage of pre-Black Friday sales for those who just cannot wait any longer. Starbucks is already schlepping peppermint mochas and Lowes is selling life-sized Santa mannequins next to discounted Halloween demons that shriek on demand. Mindlessly, we meander through the aisles amid a series of “ho, ho, ho’s” mixed with sinister “ha, ha, ha’s” relatively unmoved…and it should scare the daylights out of us.
It’s like there’s not enough in November to increase our margins or improve the market and so we skip the month altogether in the name of pursuing profits, numb to the notion that it’s destroying our peace in the process. “But wait!” you say. “Pastor, I thought we were talking about gratitude, not peace. Where’s the disconnect?” There’s not one. The Apostle Paul pinpoints it in his letter to the Philippians. In fact, I preached about it a few weeks ago. Check this out: This is what he says: “With thanksgiving [emphasis mine] let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4: 6-7).
The statement is simple, but the connection is so existentially significant. Don’t miss it:
Gratitude is the prelude to peace. If that’s true (and I believe it is), we cannot possess real peace and skip practicing gratitude. Therein lies the problem: we’ve excised gratitude from our collective vocabulary and replaced it with offense and outrage. For far too long we’ve deployed these evil twin sisters as the avatars to effect change in the world—and they certainly have: We’re more brittle in our discourse and bitter in our hearts than ever before. It’s simply the symptom of a nation that is now anemic due to ingratitude.
Contrary to what the commercials would have us believe, consumption isn’t the cure, nor is it an attitude. An attitude of gratitude, I’m learning, is insufficient. We cannot think our way there. The scientific data suggests gratitude must be a daily, deliberate practice—a decision.
“Come ye thankful people, come.” What’cha gonna do? Sing along or sit it out? Start with thanksgiving. Don’t skip it. And then don’t be surprised to find that peace will follow.
