The Loop

Have you ever thought about the connection between gratitude and the gospel?

I know, I’m writing about gratitude in November… nothing new, right? But I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude over the last 6 months. See, I bought my first house this summer. And somewhere between the abundance I wanted (that long wish list that every home buyer dreams up…) and the abundance I got (a fixer-upper with great potential but plenty of work on the horizon…), I lost sight of the fact that any abundance is a gift. So, when my husband and I finally pulled off the ugly, decades-old wallpaper in the master bedroom, only to learn that it was hiding a full wall of mold underneath, I certainly wasn’t thinking, “Thank you, Lord, that I own this wall!” Nope. I was thinking, “How much will this cost?” and “When will I find time to fix it?” and “What other issues is this indicative of?”

Part of the problem was that the way I engaged with the home-buying process had shifted a lot of my attention away from spiritual pursuits and towards material ones.

Before I go further, I think it’d be good to distinguish between these two things… the material and the spiritual. The way I see it, material blessings are not guaranteed… not in scripture, and not in human law. Spend a day with any impoverished person (third world or first, Christian or not…) and you’ll quickly realize this. It’s not that God never provides material wealth… on the contrary, James 1:17 tells us that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…” But often, when scripture speaks about material provision, it is used to highlight a far more important spiritual provision. Like the birds of the air and the flowers of the field that we read about in Matthew 6, we are told: “…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (verse 25, emphasis added).

In many ways, this passage is more about perspective than provision. It is a call to consider spiritual blessings above material ones, and this is key to my story.

God doesn’t promise us an easy life, by American standards. But He does promise us blessings that are rooted more deeply (albeit, abstractly) in who He is. Spiritual blessings like peace (John 14:27), grace (John 1:14), presence (James 4:8), comfort (Matthew 11:28-29), compassion (Psalm 145:8-10), and love (Jeremiah 31:3).

So I had this mold problem. 

And with my mind set on material comforts, I literally prayed that God would miraculously remove the mold overnight. But God was apparently not as interested in a water-to-wine-style miracle as I was. And in retrospect (ONLY in retrospect, mind you…), I’m glad I didn’t get a small miracle, because it forced me to see past material provision and toward a deeper spiritual provision. 

See, my anxiety was unmanageable until I shifted my prayers from “God, help me fix this” (a prayer rooted in material fears) to “God, give me the proper perspective for this situation” (a prayer of spiritual significance.)

It’s worth noting that I don’t think it’s wrong to pray for God to show up and provide material solutions.... But if the goal is gratitude and joy, I find that a prayer for perspective goes much further! When I started praying for perspective, the Lord began to gently pull back my layers of pride and show me all the ways that I had taken His blessings (both material AND spiritual) for granted. It was a loving, patient procedure. It filled me with both gratitude and joy, one blessing at a time. For example…

• I have the physical ability to walk, lift things, and generally move about. This means I can do the repair work that needs to happen. Thank you, God, for my good health!
• I have access to a store to buy all the supplies I will need. Thank you, God, for the country I live in!
• I have family nearby who know how to replace drywall, and the rotten studs underneath. And they are willing to help me. Thank you, God, for my family!
• I have a job with flexible hours that will make it easier to fund and facilitate repairs. Thank you, God, for my job! You, alone, gave me the skillset to be in this position at work.
• I don’t have to choose financially between fixing the wall and eating dinner tonight. Thank you, God, for food!
• I have a place to sleep tonight. Thank you, God, for a roof over my head!
• I know that one moldy wall changes nothing about my salvation. Thank you, God, for sending Christ into the world to rule as King! 

You’ll notice that the list of things to be grateful for went on longer than my initial list of stressors… that wasn’t contrived! In writing this, I found it much easier to recall what I was thankful for than to remember the anxieties that ate at me when I first pulled back that strip of moldy wallpaper. That’s one of the gifts of gratitude—it builds upon itself. But this gratitude only came by praying, not for solutions to my problems, but for perspective.

So, back to the question of gratitude and the gospel. 

I see gratitude as a practice of putting things into perspective. We consider the worst, then the best, and then place ourselves somewhere on that sliding scale. But God has been teaching me something paradigm-altering… that no matter what the situation is, the gospel breaks the scale! It is so immensely good, so incredibly, eternally powerful, that nothing can stand against it. Not hunger, not sickness, not even death. Certainly not a moldy wall. Where all else is fleeting, the goodness of the Kingdom of God, through Christ’s reign over darkness, is a forever promise. That’s the gospel. And that’s spiritual provision.

      "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." (Revelation 4:8)

When we realize the magnitude of the gospel, the logical next step is to realign our perspective to it. Thus, my moldy wall (a small material issue, to be sure) nevertheless led me to consider some bigger “even if”s. For example:

• God, I own a house from which I can serve You… But EVEN IF I did not have this house, I would still serve You, because I know that Your way brings life.
• God, I own a house that protects me from the elements… But EVEN IF I had no shelter, I would look forward to an eternity in My Father’s House, in which You have prepared a room for me.
• God, I own a house in a country where I can worship You freely… But EVEN IF I lived in a closed country, I would worship You anyway, because Your Kingdom is greater than any on earth.
• God, you have given me every material blessing I need to fix my moldy wall… But EVEN IF this wall never got fixed, my identity and peace would remain firmly rooted in you.

As someone who grew up in the church, I was blessed with the gospel from birth. The danger I face is not that I would forget what the gospel message is… The danger is that I would forget the magnitude of the gospel message in my life and lose sight of just how all-encompassing it is. And when I lose perspective on that, it’s easy for gratitude to slip away. But when I realign my perspective to the power of the gospel, gratitude is always quick to follow.

 Let me try that again.

As someone who grew up in the church (Lord, thank you that I live in a country where I can freely worship among other believers!), I was blessed with the gospel from birth (Lord, thank you for raising me under the protection of two Christian parents!) The danger I face is not that I would forget what the gospel message is (Lord, thank you that I have the mental capacity for hearing and remembering!) …The danger is that I would forget the magnitude of the gospel message in my life, (Lord, thank you for friends that will steer me, endlessly, towards you) and lose sight of just how all-encompassing it is (Lord, thank you that you did not leave us alone in a world of suffering, but came down and created a rescue plan for all of eternity.) And when I lose perspective on that, it’s easy for gratitude to slip away. But when I realign my perspective to the power of the gospel, gratitude is always quick to follow. (I love you Lord, and I am grateful to you.)

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