music :: worship :: life
Here’s a report on some scientific research into the benefits of gratitude:
Gratitude Theory: Researchers find the virtues of gratitude include good health.
And a blog that references the article:
more on gratitude ~ “Gratitude Theory”
Here’s another article on the psychological benefits of practicing gratitude:
Cultivating Gratitude: An Interview with Robert Emmons, Ph.D.
In 2005, about a month after the hurricane, I did some exercises from ReflectiveHappiness.com, which focused on recording and describing a list of blessings experienced each day. I can verify that doing this on a daily basis for several weeks brought me quickly back from a very dark depression. The immediate aftermath of the storm had been a period of intense activity, excitement, and camaraderie with fellow early-responders. But after a month, the glamor wore off and the sense of adventure paled. Driving around this devastated community, I was pummeled by an awareness that things would never be back to the way they were, and the life I knew would never be the same. I grieved intensely for what was already lost, and for what in my prescience I could foretell would soon be gone. There had been much to lose, after all. Little of it was material—not the important parts, anyway. I saw it slipping away.
Anyway, it was a very depressing time for me. Developing the practice of “counting my blessings” every day quickly alleviated the dark mood and enabled me to carry on with renewed strength. i have continued the practice off and on since then. And in October, 2006, I started keeping a book to record miracles and special blessings whenever they occur.
Gratitude works!
John Henry Jowett, the English pastor who served for many years at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, said, “Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.” Researchers are now beginning to discover scientifically a truth that religious leaders have taught for millennia.
And gratitude is the beginning of discipleship. In Romans 12:1, Paul says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” Gratitude is the end of religion and empty ritual, and the start of a genuine relationship with God. In gratitude for all that God has done for us, to give ourselves wholly and without reservation to him, is true worship. Only then we can begin to experience the benefits of the indwelling Spirit of God:
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
—Galatians 5:22-23
Gratitude is the key that unbars the gates to God’s favor, and releases the flood of blessings that God has in store for those who love him. Gratitude births joy and wholehearted love for God, the qualities that made David a man after God’s own heart. Gratitude enables us to live the kind of life God blesses.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
—Colossians 3:12-17
Henri Nouen (whose birthday is today) said: “God is always active in our lives. God always calls, always asks us to take up our crosses and follow. But do we see, feel, and recognize that call or do we keep waiting for that illusory moment when it will really happen?”
What are you waiting for?
A hilarious spoof of the Mac vs. PC commercials, pitting an uptight “Christian” against a more unpretentious “Christ-follower.”
If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped.
—Evelyn Underwood
Let them construct a Sanctuary for me so that I can live among them.
—Exodus 25:8
The ancient peoples of the mid-east worshipped at special places—a holy mountain, a sacred grove, a hallowed well. The early Hebrews did this, too. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—all dedicated special sites as sacred to God, erected monuments and altars, and journeyed there to worship and offer sacrifices. Moses took the whole tribe of Israel to a holy mountain to worship and built an altar there for sacrifices.
But on the mountaintop, God instructed Moses to build Him a tabernacle—a special tent devoted to Him. This tent was not to protect God from the elements, or to hide Him from the people. The tabernacle served as an invitation to worship, an invitation to fellowship, an invitation to communion with Him.
It was a holy place, but it was a mobile holy place—a sanctum to-go. Wherever they went, whatever they did, the tent served as a visible reminder of God. God wanted to be sure they remembered that He was always with them. He wanted them to know that no matter where they were, they were always invited to worship. No matter where they went, He was always present.
He wants us to know that now. He is here with us right now. He is always present. We need no special place to come and worship. We need not go anywhere to enter into His presence. He sent His Holy Spirit to make our bodies into temples. And it is we who need to become present to Him. We present ourselves to Him, not as burnt offerings, but as living sacrifices, if, wherever we go, whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God.
Here’s an interesting statement published in a U.S. newspaper:
There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the established style. Because there are so many new songs you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances; people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scene and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.
In case you’re wondering who wrote this, and what songs the writer was so upset about, the author was William Romaine, an Anglican pastor and author, who wrote this critique in An Essay on Psalmody in 1723. It was a statement against the hymns of Isaac Watts, who wrote such blasphemous songs as Joy to the World, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed, At the Cross, O God Our Help in Ages Past, and hundreds more. Watts was one of the most popular writers of contemporary worship music in his day.
That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.
—Ecclesiastes 1:9
What else can I say?
Throughout this season I have been reminded of a story from the life of Jesus—the story of Martha and Mary:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
—Luke 10:38-42
This is the season when we get distracted by all the preparations, all the details, all the scurrying. Locust swarms of shoppers strip the malls bare and clot the city’s traffic arteries, turning streets into honking, cursing glaciers of gridlock. The simple worship service overnight grows into a six-headed beast no one can tame. Fuming families sulk in their corners, or feign togetherness to prove to the world that they are brimming with the mandatory holiday spirit. Lead-pipe evangelists pound the “Put Christ back in Christmas” drum. The Christmas juggernaut grinds us all to pulp.
I say, “Let’s put Christmas back in Christmas.” Christmas means a celebration of the coming of our promised savior. We’ve all been distracted by the preparations we think need to be made. But Jesus is saying to us, “Only one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen rightly.” If our attention wanders away from Christ and onto any other thing, we have lost that One Thing. That One Thing is Jesus. The One Thing we need do is sit at the feet of our master and king, and devote ourselves wholly to Christ.
To save the world, Jesus needed only a few handfuls of straw and a simple cattle stall to lay in. He needed no elaborate preparations. Nor does he require of us an elaborate response. When we surrnder ourselves in joyful devotion to Christ, we are doing that one needful thing.
Merry Christmas.
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