Gratitude

Personal gratitude is contextual. It is an act of one's will. For example, I have heard people tell me I should be grateful that my cancer is under control. This is the context, and in this context I am grateful. However, in the big picture, I am not grateful that I have cancer. Applied across the spectrum of life's pressures and challenges, contextual gratitude is a hard won and fragile point of weak light. In the New Testament, Paul talks about a different sort of gratitude or thankfulness. This thankfulness is beyond context, based on a faith we have in a God who loves us and will never forsake us. Gratitude for grace that sustains us in the chemo room, or in a collapsed mine in Chile for 2 months, or at the cemetery as a young son is lowered into the ground. This gratitude knows no limits, has no fear, runs wild and free, leaping over every barrier. It is a deeper than a mine, or a grave, and soars all the way to heaven.