Here's the thing about yesterday's reminders, especially the first one. (I expect this to tie in with a post from October, too.)
When I first read the Thessalonians reading with our men's fellowship group on Saturday morning, I was immediately struck by how far I've gotten from it in just a few weeks. It is so easy for us to have our attention on the things that we're displeased with, especially frustrating circumstances that we can't really do anything about. When I get into that rut, I am easily discouraged and unappreciative of the many blessings I have, most especially the people who love me. The song of my life becomes a lament, a dirge of dissatisfaction. Unchecked, the death they herald is my own, as I become an unfruitful wasteland.
(Perhaps that, too, is overly bleak. Plants need a dormant period to recharge, and maybe we do, too.)
But the gift of praise, lifts us out of that quagmire, keeps us from being dragged down by the mud that otherwise weighs down our feet and steals the joy that motivates us to run the race with abandon. There is no set of circumstances in life that we should allow to rob us of the gift of rejoicing! If we are Christ's, what can the world set against us to steal from us our joyful gratitude!
The season of Advent is a good time to recognize whether dissatisfaction and grumbling has become our modus operandi. We're not using a wreath this year: no one bought candles. (It is my favorite sort of year for one, too, containing a full fourth week due to Christmas falling on a Sunday. This won't happen again until 2016.) When we use one, I pray by its light in the early morning, and love how the mornings gets gradually brighter as I spend time week by week in prayer. The joyful light of Christ's presence becomes gradually more evident as I am drawn nearer, eventually cascading into the brilliance of Christmas itself. I miss that this year. Now I must be faithful to my fresh awareness of the effect that my Advent preparations have on my life, and seek daily time to remember my many blessings and, most importantly, the perfect Gift of which they all serve to remind me.
When gratitude feels like another burden piled onto the rest of them, rather than a gift freely flowing from my grateful heart, it's probably better to find just a couple small things for which to offer sincere thanks than to try to fake something I'm not feeling. I can't make myself feel as I wish I did - full of joyful thanks - but I can foster habits that help those feelings develop over time.
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