Many people believe that Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays of the year, partly because it has somehow avoided commercialization. Everyone seems to love Thanksgiving, except for maybe the turkeys of the world. How great is it that we set aside a day to celebrate gratitude? Gratitude is truly one of the most important aspects of a happy life. Have you noticed that it is almost impossible to be grateful and miserable at the same time? Even when circumstances are not going our way, gratitude can help pull us out of the pit of discouragement.
Not long ago I was trying to help students practice gratitude, so we experimented with the word “lucky.” We might think lucky is a word of chance, but in another sense, lucky is about feeling fortunate or even blessed. Lucky is the word we use when something happens to us that we didn’t expect or create. I remember Eugene Peterson using the word, “holy luck” to define God’s blessing. It is the opposite of entitled. Entitlement is anti-gratitude.
The students came to believe that “feeling lucky” was the necessary attitude behind feeling grateful. So that year we all start a “lucky list.” We did it for a month. The lucky list was a list of everything that made you a fortunate person, even if you didn’t presently feel like one. I’m not suggesting that lucky people have everything going their way. But the discipline of gratitude asks, “What can you name in your life right now, that makes you a lucky person.”
If I were to do a lucky list this year it might include:
*Golf in December
*Three of my four children living near us
*Discovering the happy hour menu at Roxy’s restaurant
*Being with my Dad on his birthday earlier this month
*Singing with my two grandkids this past Sunday evening (even though the songs were itsy-bitsy spider, twinkle-twinkle, and the people on the bus, over and over and over).
*A new baby granddaughter on the way
*Great sourdough bread
*All my new Sacramento friends
Why don’t you try a lucky list? It will really help you feel better especially in rough or sad times. And you might think of reading a few of your items to each other around the table this Thanksgiving Day.
I am grateful for our new church. We are growing in our sense of identity and we are beginning to formulate our sense of mission. I am also grateful for all of you who come each week and are a part of this family. We are getting to know one another and learning what it means to be a community of faith.
Not long ago I was trying to help students practice gratitude, so we experimented with the word “lucky.” We might think lucky is a word of chance, but in another sense, lucky is about feeling fortunate or even blessed. Lucky is the word we use when something happens to us that we didn’t expect or create. I remember Eugene Peterson using the word, “holy luck” to define God’s blessing. It is the opposite of entitled. Entitlement is anti-gratitude.
The students came to believe that “feeling lucky” was the necessary attitude behind feeling grateful. So that year we all start a “lucky list.” We did it for a month. The lucky list was a list of everything that made you a fortunate person, even if you didn’t presently feel like one. I’m not suggesting that lucky people have everything going their way. But the discipline of gratitude asks, “What can you name in your life right now, that makes you a lucky person.”
If I were to do a lucky list this year it might include:
*Golf in December
*Three of my four children living near us
*Discovering the happy hour menu at Roxy’s restaurant
*Being with my Dad on his birthday earlier this month
*Singing with my two grandkids this past Sunday evening (even though the songs were itsy-bitsy spider, twinkle-twinkle, and the people on the bus, over and over and over).
*A new baby granddaughter on the way
*Great sourdough bread
*All my new Sacramento friends
Why don’t you try a lucky list? It will really help you feel better especially in rough or sad times. And you might think of reading a few of your items to each other around the table this Thanksgiving Day.
I am grateful for our new church. We are growing in our sense of identity and we are beginning to formulate our sense of mission. I am also grateful for all of you who come each week and are a part of this family. We are getting to know one another and learning what it means to be a community of faith.
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