Gratitude: the forgotten source of peace

All good gifts around us: every day is a harvest thanksgiving
day. We have so much to be grateful for.

Recently we experienced a 20-hour power cut caused by a burnt-out underground cable. It was a vivid reminder of our dependence on electricity: light, heat and appliances all died. Electricity is one of many things that we take for granted; rarely are we consciously thankful for it. During the cut, however, the cable company connected homes to emergency generators, and teams of engineers dug holes and located and repaired the fault. Another cause for gratitude: skilled people were quickly organised to remedy our problem.

We are very fortunate, compared to many people in the world. Certainly compared to our forebears of only a few generations back, for whom the convenience of electric power was unknown. And compared to people in developing countries where breakdowns are not so speedily repaired.

Gratitude is an often-forgotten emotion. We may express it at an unexpected gift, or as at this time of year in harvest thanksgiving services when we pay lip-service to God’s provision of the natural resources from which all that we have – including all manufactured products – are derived. But generally, gratitude is not part of our mental and spiritual way of life. It gets crowded out by our full diaries and our constant striving to achieve. As a result, we miss something important: peace and contentment.

What gratitude does

Daniel Defoe’s morality tale Robinson Crusoe has the island castaway coming to his senses after some time in his lonely environment. “I learned to look on the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side,” Crusoe says, “and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I lacked.”¹  The more we want, the less we appreciate what we already have.

Gratitude creates within us a sense of well-being, of contentment; when we’re thankful, we’re not straining for yet more. It is a vital component of emotional, mental and spiritual health. Studies have suggested that people who are mindfully grateful tend to experience less stress and fewer minor illnesses regardless of their personal circumstances: our state of mind does affect our physical well-being.

Gratitude puts life into perspective. It reduces anxiety in the present and fear for the future. It stimulates care, contentment and compassion; gratitude and greed are mutually exclusive. It overpowers guilt from past incidents about which we can do nothing and on which we dwell only at the expense of our peace of mind. Gratitude melts away anger and increases patience; there is so much more to be grateful for than to be exasperated by. It stops us comparing ourselves to others and so helps us avoid the crippling folly of criticising them or complaining about them.

And above all, it is a means by which wholeness is developed. It renews our relationship with God and opens us to the possibility of discovering more about, and receiving more from, him. Gratitude makes us more mindful of God and careful towards others. It was the one leper out of ten who received wholeness when he alone went back to thank Jesus (Luke 17:11-19). 

What others say

American Catholic writer Robert Wickes writes that “gratitude feeds a healthy perspective. In turn, a healthy perspective allows you to see the world with a greater sense of gratitude. Gratitude and perspective form a circle of grace.”² 

And former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, observed that “It is possible that in most of us the spiritual life is stunted because we give so little place to gratitude. It is more important to thank God for blessings received than to pray for them beforehand.” He goes on to suggest that forward-looking prayer at least partly self-centred, whereas backward-looking thanksgiving is selfless and “akin to love”.³ 

So it’s hardly surprising that biblical writers knew, and extolled, the value and importance of thanksgiving. It’s a constant theme in the psalms irrespective of the writers’ current circumstances (see below). Perhaps the most significant passage is Philippians 4:4-9 in which Paul points to positive benefits of gratitude. He begins by encouraging us to “rejoice in the Lord always” – focusing on God’s loving greatness irrespective of however comfortable or difficult our personal situation may be.

Rejoicing helps to stimulate gentleness (his next exhortation), which is a careful, mindful approach to other people and possibly difficult situations. That encourages us to pray about everything “with thanksgiving” – remembering who God is, what he has done before and what he can do now. And the result is “the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Here is the circle of grace Robert Wickes wrote of: gratitude leads to prayer, prayer generates peace (as opposed to anxiety), which in turn restores our sense of gratitude and contentment for the unchanging, unflappable nature of God.

But that’s not all. He continues with the sort of exercise that modern mindfulness teachers advocate: “Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things….And the God of peace will be with you.” Meditating on whatever is praiseworthy – and there is so much – is a source of peace, contentment, confidence in God and compassion towards others, just as long as we remember to notice it.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”⁴ Try the exercises below and see for yourself that in a relatively short time, they’ll make a difference to the way you see things, the way you feel and the way you act.

Think, talk and practice gratitude

1. In what circumstances did psalmists give thanks to God? Look at Psalm 7:17; 30:12; 100:4; 107:1; 118:1.

2.  What did Jesus give thanks or praise for? Matthew 11:25; 14:19; 26:26; John 11:41f.

3.  What can you learn from Paul’s exhortations to give thanks? Ephesians 1:16; 5:19; Philippians 4:4-9; Colossians 2:6f; 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

4.  “We must know how to say thank you. Our days are filled with the gifts the Lord showers on us. If we were in the habit of taking stock of them, at night we should be like ‘a queen for a day’, dazzled and happy with so many blessings.”⁵  Try this exercise: at the end of each day: think of at least five things (secular psychologists recommend 10, so start with five and increase the number steadily each day) that you have done, used, experienced or seen during the day that you can give thanks for. And quietly say “Thank you God” for them.

5.  Or this: sit quietly in a room (any room), a garden, park, countryside, seaside, and look around. Take conscious note of everything you see: natural and human-made. As your eye lights on something, pause and give thanks in your own way for what it is, what it does, and for who designed and made it from other components.

6.  Or this: at the start of the day, with your first cup of tea or coffee, your shower or your breakfast, even the bus or the train – take a few moments to pause and say thank you for these or other common daily things you do and need. It will give you a greater lift than caffeine alone!

References

1.  Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Penguin Classics

2.  Robert Wickes, Prayerfulness, Sorin Books 2009, p.113
3.  William Temple, Readings in St John’s Gospel, Macmillan 1945, p.189f
4.  G.K. Chesterton, A short history of England, Chatto & Windus 1930, p.59
5.  Michel Quoist, Prayers of life, p. 47

© Derek Williams 2105. Material in these posts may be reproduced for small group or personal study with due acknowledgement.