Cultivating Attitude
Attitude is everything. Well, if not everything, it counts greatly. To live looking to God with gratitude is a discipline we cultivate. If we are only grateful when the feeling of thanks sweeps over us it will be a very sporadic thing. The alternative is to take frequent inventory of blessings in place. This is a discipline with a great return. Charles Surgeon, the great English Preacher in the Reformed Baptist tradition said, “It is not how much but have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness.”
Looking at the content from the Bible and prayer book going into our liturgy this Sunday, we recognize cohesive themes. The attitude of thankfulness is elevated. In gratitude, we realize positive far-reaching outcomes. In the Gospel lesson from Luke 17, we see ten lepers healed by Jesus. Nine of them follow Jesus’s instructions to depart and show themselves to the priests for inspection of their skin in the hope of being approved to return to society. This process is prescribed in the Law of Moses. One of the ten, a Samaritan, interrupts his own following of this instruction, once he notices that he is healed. He turns back, praising God, and falls at Jesus’s feet, thanking him.
The Samaritan is not scolded for not following through with the original instructions. On the contrary, he is praised. Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" The Samaritan realizes, the wonder that has taken place: he sees that he is clean, and it fills him with gratitude. His outlook drives him to turn back, in praise, and offer thanks. He is overcome with joy; we could say he is enjoying his healed state. He is made clean and truly happy.
Turning back in thanks was a spontaneous action. He has sensed that God is operating in his life. A similar message comes through Jeremiah 29. God delivers the word through the prophet to exiles in Babylon. The Lord is telling them to dive into their current circumstance with productive and healthy practices. God wants them to bloom where they are planted. Instead of being lost in discouragement because they are in a foreign land, they are to build, plant, and grow their families, all that they can. They are to see the city of exile as the city to which the Lord has sent them. From whatever welfare this city has, they are to find their own personal welfare. Their perspective, their attitude, will make the difference. This way, generations hence, their people will return to their sacred homeland in strength.
I am curious about how we can cultivate gratitude in times when things are most discouraging. I find it difficult in those times. How might we work on our attitude to lead us to the most promising outcome? There must be ways to sharpen our recognition of God’s grace day to day. This would be a diligent mode of “counting our blessings.” The grace that goes before us and follows us can indeed guide us to our best work.
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.