- Is there a college or graduate school level of thankfulness we can ever hope to attain?
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, once said that there is no duty more urgent than returning thanks.
Zooming through the holidays every year, I am never quite sure if I get this thanks thing right. Am I still learning the kindergarten basics of gratitude? Have I graduated to grade or middle school yet in my appreciation to God? Is there a college or graduate school level of thankfulness I can ever hope to attain?
Honestly, I think I am still at the kindergarten-grade school stage of thanksgiving discipleship. And I want to do better.
Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher (13th-14th century) once taught that the 100 silver sockets of the Tabernacle described in the rather obscure verse of Exodus 38:27 corresponded to the 100 blessings or thanksgivings that a Jew should daily offer. Just as the sanctuary rested on those sockets, so the life of holiness rests on 100 daily expressions of gratitude.
A few years ago, I read that anecdote and took it to heart. I typically exercise this new skill on my daily walks. My goal is 100, but too often I have found myself running short. Not that I don’t have a hundred reasons to show appreciation to God; I suspect that the neglect of this spiritual muscle has caused it to atrophy.
Maybe I just need to wake up, spiritually speaking. A church friend and I have developed a little routine on Sunday mornings. When one of us asks, “Hey, how you are doing?” the other replies, “Better than Solomon!” You know, the richest, wisest man on the planet in his day. The unfathomably wealthy and wise king didn’t have close to what I enjoy every day: instant light, power, and heat at the flip of a switch. Air conditioning. Indoor plumbing. Eyeglasses. Internet. GPS. Cars. Planes. Paved roads. Walmart and Kroger. The Bible – Old and New Testaments. And coffee. Coffee!
After thinking those things over (and particularly that last one), my friend and I head to the refreshment center in the foyer for, you know, a caffeine jolt.
I live in Jackson in a nice neighborhood. But, alas, there was a carjacking not twenty yards from my front door a few weeks ago. It reminded me that Matthew Henry, the famous Bible commentator, was once the victim of armed robbery. Even in this horrible event, he chose to be thankful. He listed four reasons for thanksgiving:
1. I was never robbed before.
2. The robber took my money but not my life.
3. Although he took all the money I had, it wasn’t much.
4. I was the victim of the robber and not the perpetrator of the robbery.
Henry had entered that graduate school I mentioned a few paragraphs ago. And I want to get there.
So these are my first baby steps. I just did a search: 100 things for which a Christian in this country should be thankful. And I am committing to make my way through that list daily for a few weeks and see what happens. I have to get into the spiritual thanksgiving gym now while I am thinking about it, lest the urgency and priority fade.
Ah, the Psalmist: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (103:1-2)
