Yesterday, I was listening to the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s “Uncommon Sense” podcast as they were talking about gifts of gratitude and signing up for this year’s Advent reflections series via email.
The “gift” in “Gift of Gratitude” was not just another appeal to donations, giving Tuesday, etc. This time of year I receive way too many appeals from Catholic organizations that feel more grift than gift.
Today I received in the mail my “Advent with G. K. Chesterton” Calendar where each day you can write a specific gift you are thankful for.
I have heard the advice about counting your blessings and acknowledging them, especially as it is easier to count your gripes and vocalize them. Losing perspective on what is actually important. A comment was made in the video to the effect that you can’t have gratitude without humility. Like many obvious truths, I was understanding what was not obvious to me, and really oblivious to me. For example, “The Litany of Humility” has many hard truths in it; yet my reaction was to the seeming over-piety of the lines that I did not really want the grace to desire them.
Thinking about this and my reaction, I was reflecting on the connectedness between humility and gratitude. Praying that litany, I felt more like Uriah Heep in Dickens’s novel “David Copperfield” saying he is “a very umble person.” When on the podcast they referenced a “Litany of Gratitude”, that instantly connected with me. Perhaps I could grow my humility by growing my gratitude.
Another aspect I have been thinking about lately are not just the gifts I am thankful for from God, but more so some of the deprivations of gifts that I would yearn for. That not receiving them is also a gift. That so much of what I desire would not be effective for building the Kingdom of God, but for the aggrandizement of my own ego.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Co 12:9–10)
If Jesus’s power can be made perfect in my weakness, than I have plenty to offer for fuel. His grace is sufficient, so I can at least amp up my gratitude.
Chesterton’s gratitude for everything, is what has drawn me powerfully to him and his writings.
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