12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:12-17)Gratitude is a tricky thing to define these days. Too often, we link it to the way a child opens a birthday present or the way we appreciate a favor from a friend. In other words, thankfulness is seen to be the appropriate response when we get what we want in life. But when you read the passage above (which references thankfulness three times in v 15, 16, and 17), it seems that gratitude goes hand in hand with a life in which we don't always get what we want. Consider the following list:
- v 12 calls us to be compassionate, kind, meek, humble, and patient
- v 13 calls us to bear with one another and to forgive one another
- v 14 calls us to pursue love in order to create a relational harmony
- v 15 calls us to enjoy our salvation as a reminder of our unity
Do these sound like people who were getting everything they wanted? I don't think so. Apparently, thankfulness had a different function: it wasn't for people who had every relational whim satisfied but for people in conflict and disappointment who needed a reminder of what they'd truly received. Now how were they to do this? How were they to stir up a life of gratitude. By focusing on the gospel ("the word of Christ" is the message about who Jesus was and what He did)... it was to dwell in them and create the following activities among them:
- it was to inform their advice and teaching together (v 16)
- it was to shape their worship in singing together (v 16)
- it was to center everything they said and did around Jesus' name (v 17)
So what's the take-home point? From what I'm seeing above, it seems that I'm not simply invited to be thankful when life's going my way. Instead, it seems that thankfulness is an attitude I'm called to cultivate as an overflow of my delight in the gospel. Gratitude (in this sense) guards me from the pitfalls of self-pity and self-righteousness that conflict often leads me towards. What a gift the good news is to us- shaping our thoughts, songs, words, and actions... especially at those times when our friends and family seem most disappointing.
So... how are you cultivating gratitude this week?
