The Impact of Thankfulness
Last month I explored the idea of gratitude and what that means at a deeper level than just the superficial popular word in our culture defines it to be. As we approach this time of year of the holiday of Thanksgiving, I want to reflect on the concept of thankfulness a bit.
To review (or in case you missed it!), gratitude brings about within us a need to respond in appreciation and an obligation to do something. Thankfulness, on the other hand, is more of an inward kindling of a flame and an attitude toward life. When reflecting on all the goodness in our life, even that brought about somehow in God’s mysterious plan by suffering or loss or heartache, we change our perspective and our thinking from the core of our being. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that GOD changes our perspective and our thinking. We then meet life going forward with a positive attitude and hopeful point of view that buoys us and makes us live in expectation of “looking on the bright side” and seeing the rainbows when the thunder is booming. We learn to be thankful for the events that are brought into the stories of our lives and to shape those events in our response to them to make them full of meaning and poignancy.
Gratitude is commonly a reaction to the good and the positive that comes our way, whereas thankfulness can come with any circumstance. A powerful and moving example of this can be found in the short life of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch young woman who died in Auschwitz, at age 29. She writes of a moment before she is taken away from Amsterdam to Poland where she thinks about the jasmine that was no longer blooming outside. But even as she anticipates the nightmare of what is coming, she realizes that the joy of spring and blossoms can stay alive within her.
Perhaps if we could transform ourselves to her way of thinking through the transforming power of God, we too would be able to use her methods of demonstrating both thankfulness and gratitude. Do you notice how she “brings (God) all the flowers along (her) way” and how she sees “truly there are many of those”? Her gift of bringing the flowers represents her gratitude (she wants to give back to God somehow), and her ability to be able to see the flowers in spite of the darkness entering into her life in the form of World War II and the Holocaust demonstrates the thankful posture that her heart has developed as its resting position.
Certainly God blesses those who can open themselves to living a thankful life, a life that is open to searching for spring within even in the harsh cold of winter, blessings within the challenges, and who trust that His plan is the best plan. We are only blessing ourselves when we can use these lenses to see each day: our physical and mental health will improve, our attitudes and conversations will reflect our firm core of joy within our souls, and God’s peace will surround us and emanate from us.