I hate big cities.
Maybe that's not completely true.
Big cities provide great opportunities for careers and are rich in entertainment. Restaurants, museums, and stadiums. It's a place that's unique to all kinds of diversity shaping culture through fashion and the technology industry.
But I'm a small town guy.
Often what I see in big cities is traffic jams. What I hear is car horns. What I smell is exhaust fumes.
I like driving my 4x4 truck on dirt roads with the windows down. The smell of freshly cut grass in the summer and brush fires in the fall. Trips to the mountains. Or the lake. And wide open fields.
I have found myself driving in circles on downtown city streets looking for a place to park. Wandering around the block for a place to put my rental. And wouldn't you know it? A parking meter. Really! You're gonna charge me to park my car here when I'm about to go and spend who knows how much in these little shops up and down your street.
I have received fines for parking illegally [too close to a fire hydrant apparently] and traveling through the wrong lane at a toll booth on more than one occasion. And the most aggravating part was the car rental company charged me triple, did you hear me, triple, the cost of the fine.
The time on the parking meter expired and I got a fine. And my anger meter exploded.
Ok. So it was my mistake. Wrong lane. Not enough time on the meter. Parking on the curb questionably marked as off limits. But a fine? The rental company charging triple the amount of the fine? Was that really necessary?
And that's how it happens! When the rage meter rises the grateful meter is depleted.
Why are we not grateful?
Pride restrains gratitude. We think we deserve all that we have. We feel entitled to collect our wages. Our hard work has become the beckoning call for all that's good in our lives. We never pause to consider that our riches could simply be a gift from another but rather a collections agency making a return on our investment over time.
Greed restrains gratitude. We simply want more. Contentment isn't in our vocabulary. We can't appreciate or be satisfied with what we currently have because we're certain a higher dose of whatever we're chasing is necessary to gratify our desires.
Impatience restrains gratitude. We not only want more, we want it now. The high pressure demands of having those things we think will satisfy immediately are evidenced by commercials and solicitations all around us everyday. Every moment that unfolds and every memory that's collected is a token that we embezzle or exchange. And our demand to quickly change the channel of our circumstances for more proves our lack of thankfulness for those tokens of gratitude.
Why should we be grateful?
Gratitude leads to forgiveness and healing. We chase possessions, status symbols, and relationships that become poor substitutes for creating an identity that leaves us feeling empty and discontent. Gratitude begins when our lives are measured by the forgiveness of our Creator that constitutes a healing of our soul to find Him as our greatest treasure and joy.
Gratitude leads to freedom. When gratitude is lacking it permeates the feeling of a prison. A cold, dark, lonely cell of our own doing. A place void of others’ attention and affection. Bound up in feelings of loneliness and desperation. But if we're honest, we would much rather experience the feelings associated with charity and compassion in the context of community. And sharing our experiences with others leads to a freedom that's best expressed in deeply woven relationships that provide security and hope.
Gratitude leads to generosity. Giving avenges greed. Hoarding for ourselves the monuments of materialism builds cobwebs in the generosity compartment of our hearts. When we recognize that not all of life's possessions are the result of our hard work but generous gifts from someone else, then, we will begin to embrace the concept of passing it on for the good of others. A grateful heart can be recognized by the loosening of our white-knuckled grip on precious possessions given away for the good of others.
How do we show gratitude?
Say it. It's amazing the number of people who have developed cold-hearted bitterness toward others simply because they never believed they were appreciated. Their actions seemed to go unnoticed or taken for granted. And perhaps all it would have taken was a short phrase like, "I'm thankful for you." Rather than making assumptions that others know how grateful we are for them it's better to leave no doubt and make a concerted effort to let them know.
Share it. Practice the art of gift giving. We often see the task of generosity too overwhelming or unfair to those whom we can't help. I once heard a guy say, "do for one what you wish you could do for everyone." Other times we're afraid that our generosity won't be reciprocated. And that's not generosity at all. Release yourself from the prison of greed. Give without the expectation of return from others knowing that real gratitude is rooted in something [Someone] much more deeply than the human connection we make with gifts and possessions.
It's time to reset the grateful meter. When life becomes more about others than it does about ourselves we will become more inclined to give out of the profound richness of what we've received. Be grateful! And prove your gratitude by thanking others through word and deed!
