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How Cynicism Kills Gratitude

by | Nov 17, 2020 | Devotional, Gospel living, Thanksgiving

How Cynicism Kills Gratitude

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:21, ESV

She is astute and assertive; nothing gets by her. She sneers at her sister’s naiveté; smugly congratulating herself on not being easily fooled by such childish notions of God and heaven. She will shed no tear over her own suffering—after all, what more would one expect from this miserable, pitiful life? She has no awe, because nothing is really awesome. Life is hard, and then you die.

Who is she? She is the Modern-Cynic. Independent and strong, intelligent and competent, she doesn’t need God or others to help her out in this life. She thinks she knows foolishness, but Scripture says that she herself is a fool. According to Romans 1:19-23, the evidence of God’s goodness, holiness, love, power, and majesty is inscribed everywhere in the cosmos. But the cynical heart refuses to see it. Cynicism is the murderer of gratitude because it has lost its awe in God.

The cynicism of our own hearts may not be so overt as Ms. Modern-Cynic’s. We must seek it out as it sneaks about in the crevices of our sin nature, subtle as it may be. Consider Simon the Pharisee of Luke 7:37-50, whose cynicism about Jesus left him with little love and gratitude.

Do you have a murderer of gratitude lurking in your story? #gratitude #story

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Simon is certain—certain that Jesus cannot be a “prophet” because he doesn’t even know that the wild woman weeping all over his feet is “a sinner” (my emphasis) (Luke 7:39). In the ultimate irony, Simon does not know, cannot know, that Jesus is reading his mind (Luke 7:40)! Self-reliant Simon sneers at the needy woman, silently mocking her effusive show of gratitude. Jesus tells Simon a little story to invite him to see his own sin and thank God for forgiveness. When Jesus concludes, “he who is forgiven little, loves little” (Luke 7:41-46), I always long for the truth to dawn on Simon, for his eyes to grow wide with awe as he recognizes Jesus’ compassion in his warning. I want him to fall on his knees before Jesus right next to the weeping sinful woman. Sadly, that is not how the story ends. Simon’s “foolish heart is darkened” (Romans 1:21).  His cynicism has killed his gratitude.

What about you? Can you sniff out scents of cynicism in your own story?

  • Perhaps you’ve prayed a seemingly unanswered prayer for a spouse, a child, a friend, for years? You’ve begun to doubt that God even cares; you’ve begun to feel certain that God won’t intervene in this impossible situation.
  • Or, maybe you’ve succumbed to the whatever response to life in a fallen world? It just hurts too much to feel the ache of creation’s groaning, so you shut your eyes to the joy and beauty of God’s redemptive handwriting in the universe?
  • Maybe you’ve learned your role as a strong and independent being so well that you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be as desperate as the sinful woman who loved much because she was forgiven much.

Dear friends, let us draw near the cross to remember the black day that Jesus stamped out all cause for cynicism once and for all, as he hung there dying. Let us draw near the empty tomb and join the first disciples in resurrection joy, falling on our knees in gratitude for our Savior.

A Prayer about Cynicism

Our Dear Lord, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth,

By your power, you have given us everything we need to believe in something beyond the here and now. Thank you for the wonders you have worked—in the stars and in our stories. Forgive us for closing our eyes to your goodness, for thinking we know more than you about glory and goodness. Slay in us that murderer of gratitude, our subtle and sometimes overt, cynicism. In Jesus’ in-credible name we ask, Amen.

Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash

How Grace Grows Gratitude

by | Nov 10, 2020 | Bible study, Thanksgiving

How Grace Grows Gratitude

Grace and Gratitude

“It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” 2 Cor. 4:15.

According to retailers, if you don’t already have most of your Christmas shopping done (I don’t), you are running behind! But according to the calendar, it’s only the second Tuesday in November, and that seems like a good time to think about thanksgiving. Not the American holiday necessarily, which my younger daughter once jokingly summarized as a day for “Eating and thanking, thanking and eating.” Far more, it’s a good time to consider the category of thanksgiving, or gratitude. What is it, in fact, and how and why does the Bible insist that Christians make it a regular practice?

What Gratitude Is Not

Sometimes the best way to understand something is by looking at what it’s not.

We’ve already said that the Christian practice of gratitude is not merely cultural, that is, something we celebrate once a year by dining on a sumptuous feast. In addition, the Christian practice of gratitude is also not merely dutiful.

Consider this story. Grandma Charlene buys eight-year-old Emma an expensive gold cross necklace for her birthday. The thing is, Emma wanted the Lego super hero’s school set, so she’s very disappointed when she opens her grandmother’s gift. What does Emma’s mother tell her? We know the answer, because we’ve probably all said it or had it said to us at some point: “Tell your grandmother thank-you, Emma.” Emma dutifully speaks the two words. But is she really thankful? No. She is dutiful, and she is polite. Please don’t hear what I’m not saying—it is good for Emma to thank her grandmother. It’s just that her thank you misses the main point of Christian gratitude.

Where Christian Gratitude Comes From

To better understand Christian gratitude, let’s revisit 2 Corinthians 4:15, substituting two Greek words from the original for our English words:

“It is all for your sake, so that as charis extends to more and more people, it may increase eucharisteo, to the glory of God.”

Charis increases eucharisteo. The Greek root charis means grace. The Greek prefix eu means good, happy. So God’s grace leads to a happy state of grace in the Christian.

What is God’s grace like, this grace which increases our gratitude? It is not a gold cross necklace that we didn’t want in the first place. It is God’s free gift of exactly what we needed, and exactly what we wanted (whether we knew it or not)—a life of freedom from sin (Galatians 5:1), a life of being and becoming new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), a life of worshipping God and serving others (Gal. 5:13).

God’s Grace for Sinners Grows Gratitude

To catch a glimpse of God’s grace, consider an alternate story about Emma and her grandmother. Emma thinks her grandmother is too stern; she has been known to stick out her tongue at her grandmother and yell, “I hate you!” Despite Emma’s malicious treatment, her grandmother comes to her, takes her by the hand, and says, “I’m giving everything I own to you so that you may have financial freedom and vast opportunity.” Emma gets it all, any day, every day.

Now, that is a far-fetched story. In real life, a grandmother probably wouldn’t give all her money to a rude granddaughter. And yet, this fantastical story is analogous to our rebellious treatment of God and his gracious response to us. We have rebelled against God, telling him to leave us alone and let us run our own lives. He has responded by sending his one and only Son, Jesus, to die so that we might be free of our sin, so that we might live with faith, hope, and love. The only sensible response to the undeserved grace God has shown us is gratitude—overflowing, irrepressible, joyful gratitude. As God’s grace increases gratitude in us, we respond with hands lifted to give God glory and hands extended to share his glory throughout the world.

A Prayer about Grace and Gratitude

Our Gracious God,

Please forgive us. By our sometimes rotten thoughts, words, and deeds, we have stuck out our tongues at you and told you we hate you. We do not deserve your love, nor your free gift of forgiveness through your Son, Jesus Christ. And yet Jesus died for our sins and made us brand new, whole and holy. Our hearts overflow with your happy grace! Help us to extend this grace and glory to others! Amen.

Good Reading on Grace and Gratitude

2 Corinthians 4:15; 2 Corinthians 9:11-12

Want to spend more time cultivating gratitude?

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On Dining with Strangers at Thanksgiving

by | Nov 19, 2019 | Bible study, Thanksgiving

On Dining with Strangers at Thanksgiving

We’re all strangers.

With all of the current heartfelt discussion about welcoming “strangers” into our country, I thought I’d return to some basic facts from history — and the Bible — about this feast we call Thanksgiving! 

When my kiddos were little, the pre-schools and elementary schools always had Thanksgiving feasts. For these sweet occasions, I was often given the opportunity to create a Pilgrim costume out of paper bags (and thanks be to God for the schools who did that for us poor parents :-)!!) or an “Indian” costume (as the first Americans were called then) out of a t-shirt, some brown dye, and some scissors (and again, for all of you schoolteachers who did that for us…my eternal thanks:-)!

As pretty as that tableau was, it only resembled part of the real first Thanksgiving, according to Joanna Brooks, writing about the first pilgrims for Smithsonian Magazine. For many of the immigrants to America, life was characterized by starvation, poverty, fighting, and murder. But somehow in the midst of the mess, some of these strangers came together and made a feast. Ever-so-briefly, there was ever-so-tentative peace on earth.

Will you dine with strangers?

As Christians, God has called us to a feast of thanks-giving. Together, we recall that God redeemed and transformed broken, sinful people. Christ fed us physically, with bread and wine, and spiritually, with his body sacrificed to redeem and renew us.

In a few days, you may be sitting at table with a fractured community (or you may be NOT sitting at table because of fractured community). My Thanksgiving prayer for all of us is that we can remember that we were once far off — from God — and from one another, and that our Savior brought us near:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Eph. 2:13

This Savior, who broke down the dividing wall of hostility, brought us together to feast and thank God as one. For this reason, this Thanksgiving, may we accept invitations to dine with strangers — even those in our own family! As we do, may we dream of a day when the feasting will be centered around the greatest stories ever told of the goodness of the Lord. Here is some Scripture that you may enjoy reading aloud alone or together as an encouragement to celebrate with hope:

Isaiah 25: 6-10, The Message
But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies
will throw a feast for all the people of the world,
A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines,
a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts.
And here on this mountain, God will banish
the pall of doom hanging over all peoples,
The shadow of doom darkening all nations.
Yes, he’ll banish death forever.
And God will wipe the tears from every face.
He’ll remove every sign of disgrace
From his people, wherever they are.
Yes! God says so!
Also at that time, people will say,
“Look at what’s happened! This is our God!
We waited for him and he showed up and saved us!
This God, the one we waited for!
Let’s celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation.
God’s hand rests on this mountain!”

 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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