The Gratitude Attitude

Dan Holloway, Pinnacle Associate

Bumper stickers seem to be on the backs of cars everywhere these days. Sports teams, political parties, favorite vacation spots, and many other topics are proclaimed as of significant value to us just in case the people in the cars behind us happen to be interested. I admit that I sometimes wonder about the value of such communication but also admit that I occasionally enjoy reading them on others cars and especially when they make me think. That’s what happened recently when I saw this bumper sticker:

                                          “Make America Grateful Again.”

While obviously a play on words from another current bumper sticker, I found this one particularly helpful as I think about what it means to be people of faith in these days. We seem to spend an enormous amount of time in this country right now consumed by anger and controlled by the things that upset us. We tend to choose sides over every imaginable issue and are quick to proclaim our side as the right side.  I know this because I recognize this in myself as well as in so many other people with whom I engage. We all struggle to see value in those that we perceive as not like us.

Yet I am persuaded that this is doing us great harm as a country. I am likewise persuaded that this is not what God wants for us. And I am even more convinced that one of the antidotes to this great national poison is gratitude. It is gratitude that reminds us that we are all loved unconditionally by the God who made us. It is gratitude that reminds us of the many gifts we have received in family and friends and communities of faith. It is gratitude that reminds us of the forgiveness we have received for our own imperfection. It is gratitude that helps us to see with new eyes the giftedness of those with whom we do have significant differences.

Communities of faith might well seek to be identified as communities of gratitude. They might well be places of thanksgiving for diversity as well as similarity. They might see themselves as a laboratory of love where we intentionally express gratitude for those who help us to grow through their difference. We need not deny our own belief systems in order to do this. We simply need to acknowledge that gratitude is at the very heart of what it means to be Christian. There are few powers more transformative than that.