Gratitude

On Monday night while I was cooking in the kitchen using the oven, the carbon monoxide alarm went off several times in about half an hour. 

I ended up in hospital in Kings Lynn having been taken in by ambulance as I became very unwell with exposure to carbon monoxide after being in the kitchen even for a short while. After several blood tests over seven hours, the levels of carbon monoxide in me came down. Had our landlord not fitted an alarm things could have been very different. 

As people have this week written to me to say they know of people who have died from carbon monoxide poisoning I am at the end of the week thanking God for a narrow escape! 

Monday night and this week have led me to think about gratitude. Max Lucado has some interesting thoughts on saying thank you in “God is with you every day”: 

“Gratitude gets us through the hard stuff! To reflect on your blessings is to rehearse God’s accomplishments.  To rehearse God’s accomplishments is to discover his heart! To discover his heart is to discover not just good gifts but the Good Giver. Gratitude always leaves us looking at God and away from dread. The apostle Paul said, “Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” 

The surest path out of a slump is marked by the road sign, Thank you. But what of the disastrous days? Grateful then? Jesus was. “On the night when he was betrayed,” Scriptures says, “the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24 NLT). How often do you see the words betrayed and thanks in the same sentence—much less in the same heart? Give thanks…and see what happens.”

I cannot praise the NHS enough this week. The paramedics who came to me when I thought I was dying were excellent. The under staffed doctors and nurses in A and E as I lay on a bed in agony were excellent. The receptionist who let me sleep in a chair as I couldn’t go anywhere for a few hours not being able to get a lift home until gone 9am, was excellent. My new colleague Debbie was so kind to me when I was feeling grotty. She picked me up from hospital, went to the meeting I should have been at, then brought us lunch at home. This included wraps, which later I watched Alice the cat enjoy as we left the ones we didn’t eat on the table! We have mad cats. Another one of the new intake seems to enjoy cheese and onion crisps! Anyway...

As well as me suddenly going into hospital, Lis has had a night in the Royal Papworth in Cambridge trying to help her with her sleep problems. She has had a through 24 hours of sleep study tests and we had a helpful time with a consultant tonight before we left. Some of the staff on the ward were amazed we said thank you to them. Others were amazed we asked their name when they were kind to us. It is as if showing gratitude is so counter cultural in 21st century Britain, people are surprised when you tell them you appreciate their care. In a desperately overstretched NHS, with staff at breaking point, the least we can do is say we are grateful to them for their care. The ward at Papworth tonight had nurses and doctors from Greece and Spain and Poland. So why are we leaving the European Union can someone tell me? 

I’m beginning to put worship together for a week on Sunday. The lectionary is the story of ten lepers healed by Jesus yet only one returning to say thank you. 

A commentator writes: “It was natural to return and give thanks, and yet nine did not do so! If the Lord had cured you from leprosy, would you not thank Him? Have you ever thanked Him for leaving Heaven for you (2 Corinthians 8:9); for coming to Bethlehem’s manger for you (Luke 2:7); for triumphing in the wilderness for you (Matthew 4:11); for His three years of public ministry for you (Acts 10:38); and for all that He endured in Gethsemane and accomplished on Calvary for you (Luke 22:44; 1 Peter 2:24)? Have you ever thanked Him that He rose triumphant from the grave for you (Romans 4:25; Revelation 1:18); and that He ever lives to make intercession for you  (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34)? Have you thanked Him, not in word only but by the dedication of your life to His service?”

Why do we find expressing gratitude so hard when we don’t get anything as a right but out of kindness and grace of another? Two little words can make all the difference to people’s well-being. We all need to know we are appreciated. To be taken for granted is a horrible state of affairs. We all matter and we need a our contribution to society acknowledged. Don’t we? 

I love that the word “Eucharist” when we think about communion means thank you. When we kneel and hold the bread and wine of the sacrament in our hands we are reminding ourselves of the generosity of Christ who gave himself for us and gives us renewal and life and hope as we remember what he is about. I’ve over the last year and a bit been held by the Psalms, especially at Anglican evensong where we don’t leave out the horrible bits but we thank God for being there in good and in horrific. The other week in Norwich Cathedral we shared this Psalm: Psalm 83, words of assurance there is an end, and that end is in the hands of God, and we rehearse God’s goodness until we know it and anticipate it to come in completeness when his Kingdom is come. That’s Christian hope! 

 

To say thank you to God is to confess: “I am not my own and I depend on Him as the Giver of all good things.” Thus, when he pours out His mercy and compassion upon us, it becomes normal to respond with gestures of gratitude and thankfulness.

To truly love God is to love our neighbour. There is a gift and there is a giver. Gratitude acknowledges dependence on the person who gave the gift. We recognise that we are not self-sufficient and that we really do need one another and the gifts that we receive from others. Gratitude is my response to that gift. I am bemused why, like nine lepers in Jesus’s ministry we find it too difficult or unnecessary? 

Velvet is grateful I’m in for the evening! She’s thankful for my lap and my attention. I need to rediscover a spirit of gratitude again. To live life never seeing divine possibility and going in on yourself, is really hard. But imagine a life where no one feels appreciated. 

Gratitude acknowledges our need for one another.

Our need of God gratitude at its best is manifested in the context of reciprocal relationships. To truly love God is to love our neighbour. There is a gift and there is a giver. Gratitude acknowledges dependence on the person who gave the gift. We recognize that we are not self-sufficient and that we really do need one another and the gifts that we receive from others. Gratitude is my response to that gift. 

And tonight after a tough week, I was grateful for a chip! So thank you Riverside Fish Bar in March. I needed you tonight!! 

Please remember to be grateful. It will make someone’s day if you acknowledge them. If we were more grateful, well, who knows how different the world might be.