Water Daily: Gratitude

Showing posts with label Gratitude. Show all posts

11-24-22 - The Seedbed of Joy

You can listen to this reflection here.

I realize this week’s Water Daily has been somewhat “US-centric,” focused on our Thanksgiving holiday, which we celebrate today with family, friends and too much food. When I first started Water Daily, my readers were local; now we’re an international group. I thank the non-Americans among us for tolerating this focus, and hope some of the gleanings are useful. Gratitude is universal.

I once asked a wise man how to cultivate joy, because I perceived I was lacking in that department. He said, “The ground of joy is gratitude.” That made sense – and it gave me something to do, to cultivate gratitude and see what kind of joy grew from that, like a garden of wildflowers.

As followers of Christ, we are invited to give thanks in all circumstances – in plenty and in want, in health and in sickness, at peace or not, employed or not. That is my thanksgiving prayer for you, that you find it easy to be thankful today – and if it’s challenging, that you will encounter God in the practice.

If you miss somebody today, give thanks for them and their life in yours.
If you're annoyed with someone today - imagine missing them, and give thanks.
If you lack something today, give thanks for what is before you and ahead.

Give thanks in all circumstances.
There's a good chance God is giving thanks for you...

A happy and healthy and blessed Thanksgiving to you -
wherever and with whomever you spend it.

Scroll down for information and registration link for our upcoming online Advent retreat morning.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

ADVENT SPA FOR THE SPIRIT: Living Expectantly
Saturday, December 10, 9 am - Noon Online

Rev. Kate will lead an Advent online retreat morning on “Living Expectantly.” The story of God has more than a few unexpected pregnancies – women too old or too young filled with unexpected life. Through art and poetry, scripture and reflection we will examine what it means to live in expectation of blessing and fullness and hope.

Please sign up here. The retreat will be on Zoom; link and info will be sent in advance.

11-22-22 - Preemptive Gratitude

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

It’s Tuesday. What are you thankful for? “But we don’t have to be thankful till Thursday…,” you may think. But I like to be ahead of the curve, so why not start the thankfulness part of Thanksgiving early? Then we’ll be all warmed up when the Day comes around.

I’m only half-joking… thankfulness can be a great antidote to stress. If we’re devoting at least part of our attention to being aware of what we’re grateful for, there’s that much less space available to worry about what we’ve done, not done, or don’t know when we’ll get done.

So today, if you’re at your desk checking off the “must-do-before-Wednesday” tasks, give God thanks for your job, for your colleagues, for the difference you make in this world as you use your gifts.

Of if you’re wandering a grocery store – give thanks for all the food and all the people who got it there, and all the people who work there, and the resources to buy it…

Or if you’re cooking, you might give thanks for the recipes and who they came from, the ingredients, other meals like this; the people who will be gathering around the table…

Or if you’re cleaning – give thanks for the rooms and who lives in them and the blessings they’ve hosted; and if you’re preparing to see family, there are some thank yous…

Or if you’re packing, give thanks for the clothing and the circumstances by which you came to own those things, when you’ve worn it before… what else?

Or if you’re traveling, give thanks for the technology that makes it possible to get from here to there.. and if getting from here to there ends up taking longer than we hoped or planned, I guess we’ll have that much more time to think of things to be grateful for.

I know I don't need to tell you how to be grateful! You’re probably better at it than I am. The “gratitude as stress reducer” thing might just catch on, though… it could get us through the next four days... and the next few years.

As soon as I feel a stressful thought coming on, I’m going to acknowledge it, and then chase it with a grateful one. Why not beat the rush?

10-6-22 - Miracles On the Go

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Have you heard the one about the person desperate for a parking spot – late for a meeting, stressed to the max, circling the block, praying, “Dear God, I need a parking space. Please!!!” Turns the corner – lo and behold, there’s a space, right in front of the building. Pulls in, glances skyward and waves, “Never mind – found one.”

One came back. Nine kept walking. Jesus noticed the differential – “Were not ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

All ten set out in faith – they weren't healed beforehand. “As they went, they were made clean.” That’s what it means to walk by faith – miracles happen as we go. Twelve baskets of bread and fish just kept not running out as 5000 were fed; cisterns of water became finest wine as they were drawn off.

Nine took the gift in stride. Only one turned back – back to the place of his suffering, the place of his alienation and degradation – to praise God, to thank the stranger whose word made him clean. He knew that only God could heal like this, and he wanted to connect with this man in whom God’s power was so strong.

A Water Daily reader told me she started a gratitude journal, challenging herself to note at least four things each day for which she is grateful. Over time, the notations multiplied and she set herself a new challenge: to write down each day where or in whom she saw God. Tuning our inner eyes and ears to know, “Ah… that was a God-moment;" learning to distinguish Holy Spirit nudges from our own intuition; seeing God’s love or forgiveness in another person opens our spirits to a greater awareness of just how active God is around us. It’s not occasional – it’s all the time. Soon, we come to recognize that what we call “miracles” are just the way God works, as we invite God’s power and love into our situations.

Try on either or both of those spiritual practices for two weeks, a gratitude journal or a “where did I perceive God” journal. They are training exercises for spiritual fitness. They build up our strength and resilience, tone our faith muscles, hone our faith senses.

When we name our gifts, we remember the Giver – and then it’s natural to come back in praise and gratitude. And then, my oh my, we find the Giver has even more for us...

10-5-22 - Gratitude

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

One in ten. In an age when we measure rates of return on everything from email “opens” to dividend yields, maybe God says, “Ten percent ain’t bad…” glad that one in ten could look past the amazing wonder of this gift, to offer praise to the Giver:

And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

As Jesus tells the story, this is not just any “one in ten” – this one is a double outcast, a leper and a Samaritan. In Gospel stories about Samaritans who “get it,” the writers always seem to point out their ethnicity, like, “Can you believe it?”

The other nine presumably couldn’t wait to get to the temple, be certified as clean, and get back to their homes, families, lives. This one turns back, praising God loudly. He throws himself at Jesus’ feet and thanks him. He is exuberant, extravagant in his praise and thanksgiving.

The messages of this story run much deeper than “Don’t forget to say thank you…,” but that is one. When we say thank you, it multiplies the gift we have received. The giver is affirmed for her generosity, and we in a sense receive the gift more fully as we make our delight known. I don’t know if anyone has tested the biochemical or neurological effects of gratitude, but I’d bet there are some.

Gratitude is the ground for joy. It turns our focus outward. When we cultivate it as a habit, it can change our interior landscape and make the people around us feel appreciated. If we’re not already intentional about it, let’s practice.

What gift of God do you want to say “thank you” for today?
What person close to you would you like to thank? Maybe write a note or buy a gift?
What stranger would you like to thank today? What if we all made a point of telling our barristas or dry cleaners or check-out clerks or IT fixers or accountants, “I really appreciate the job you do – it makes my life better.” Think how a wave of gratitude could ripple around the world in a matter of hours. Let’s start a TikTok challenge!

While you’re at it, spend a little time thanking yourself for taking the time to talk to God, to listen, to notice God’s gifts around you. Be extravagant in giving thanks.
We can even throw ourselves at Jesus’ feet, like runners sliding into Home…

11-25-21 - Gratitude and Joy

You can listen to this reflection here.

I once asked a wise person how to cultivate joy. And he said, “Joy grows out of gratitude." So I’ve made an effort to foster an attitude of gratitude, as they say, to lead with thankfulness for what is, before I focus on what’s missing. Here are a few Thanksgiving Day thankfulnesses:

I am so grateful for this Water Daily community of readers, listeners, thinkers, commentators and pray-ers. I don’t know exactly how many or who reads or hears this on any given day, but some readers drop a note often enough to give me a sense that this is a conversation, even if I’m doing most of the talking.

And I am grateful for the opportunity to write (or often, nine years in, re-write) this thing every day. Some days, I know exactly what I’m supposed to say and it comes flowing forth. The best days are when I didn’t know, and the Holy Spirit surprises me. Unsurprisingly, those are often the best posts and receive the most feedback. No matter what the process, it gives me a chance to engage with the gospel text for Sunday, and allows creativity to flow from parts of my consciousness that don’t always get the air time they should.

And I am grateful that these words help some preachers to connect with the passage in fresh ways, and some congregants to better appreciate the sermons they hear on Sunday. God is so all over this whole process, it makes me smile just to think of the space we’re giving the Spirit to play!

I wish the Americans among us a blessed and restful and delicious Thanksgiving weekend with loved ones; and all of you a time of grateful enjoyment of your own sweet self, and the Spirit of God.

Here is a thankfulness poem for today:

That Passes All Understanding

Denise Levertov

An awe so quiet
I don't know when it began.

A gratitude
had begun
to sing in me.

Was there
some moment
dividing
song from no song?

When does dewfall begin?

When does night
fold its arms over our hearts
to cherish them?

When is daybreak?

From Oblique Prayers, New Directions, New York, 1984, p. 85

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here. Water Daily is now a podcast! Subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

11-26-13 - Preemptive Gratitude

It’s Tuesday. What are you thankful for?
“But we don’t have to be thankful till Thursday…,” you might be thinking.
I did. But I like to be ahead of the curve, so why not start the thankfulness part of Thanksgiving a few days ahead? Then we’ll be all warmed up when the Day comes around.

I’m only half-joking… it occurred to me that thankfulness can be a great antidote to stress. If we’re devoting at least part of our attention to awareness of what we’re grateful for, there’s that much less space available to worry about what we’ve done, not done, or don’t know when we’ll get done.

So today, as you wander a grocery store – give thanks for all the food and all the people who got it there, and all the people who work there, and the resources to buy it…

Or if you’re cooking, you might give thanks for the ingredients, the recipes and where they came from, other meals like this; the people who will be gathering around the table… what else?

Or if you’re packing, give thanks for the clothing and the circumstances by which you came to own those things, when you’ve worn it before… what else?

Or if you’re cleaning – give thanks for the rooms and who lives in them and the blessings they’ve hosted; and if you’re preparing to see family, there are some thank yous…

Or if you’re traveling, give thanks for the technology that makes it possible to get from here to there.. and if getting from here to there ends up taking longer than we hoped or planned, I guess we’ll have that much more time to think of things to be grateful for.

Well, I don’t have to tell you how to be grateful! You’re probably better at it than I am. The “gratitude as stress reducer” might just catch on, though… it was a new thought to me.

As soon as I feel a stressful thought coming on, I’m going to acknowledge it, and then chase it with a grateful one. Let you know how I do!