For the Goodness
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider that gratitude is, at its core, a recognition of goodness.
To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of God's love, every moment of existence is a grace. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.
— Thomas Merton
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
James 1:17
Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes from above.
Food for Thought
In my denomination, the Episcopal Church, there is an organization called the United Thank Offering. This group takes donations from individuals and congregations throughout the year, and then provides grants to ministries that aid those in need. What makes UTO special is that, at every stage, their work is explicitly connected to the practice and experience of gratitude. They believe that gratitude and generosity are fundamentally linked and are working together to encourage both in the life of the church.
But what does it mean to be grateful? What does it mean to give thanks? And why, exactly, should that have anything to do with generosity? If gratitude is more than simply a wellness strategy, it must mean more than noticing what makes us happy. If gratitude is a spiritual virtue, then its roots must go deeper. Put simply, I believe that gratitude is the recognition of genuine goodness in the world — and the recognition that all the goodness around us and within us is an unearned gift we have been given.
My suggestion that the goodness we encounter isn't something we've earned or deserve isn't a back door into the kind of harsh self-criticism that has too often characterized religious thought and practice. Instead, it is meant to help us see the link between gratitude and generosity. Jesus tells his followers that God "makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous." It's scandalous! But as those who are blessed by God's radical and unconditional generosity, we are called to show our thankfulness precisely by imitating that kind of generosity in our own lives. "Freely you have received," Jesus says, "so freely give."
If we understand gratitude as the recognition and appreciation of what's genuinely good, it also becomes easier to understand what Paul means when he says that we should "give thanks in all circumstances." This can't mean that we should be grateful for all circumstances — there's no virtue at all in trying to force ourselves to respond to bad circumstances as if they were good. But even in the most difficult of circumstances, even when we're faced with injustice, oppression, suffering, and loss, it's possible for gratitude and lament to co-exist. When the world is not as it should be, we cry out to God and name that wrongness. And at the very same time, there is always some goodness that remains to be seen and named and cherished. Maybe it's the support of a friend, offered in a moment of deepest need. Maybe it's the unexpected strength to make it through to the other side of a situation that seemed unbearable. But in every circumstance, there is one unchanging truth that we can hold onto and give thanks for: the God who made us loves us wildly, and has promised to never leave us or forsake us.
When we really see the love with which God has seeded all of creation, when we come to understand the generosity that God shows toward every creature, we give thanks. And the thanks we give is thanks that receives and accepts God's love for us. And so we let that love spill over into love for those around us.
For the goodness God has put within us, for the goodness God has put into our lives and the world around us, for the goodness we are invited to share joyfully with others, thanks be to God.
Write down or meditate on three aspects of goodness you are experiencing in this moment. Offer a prayer of gratitude in response. It can be as simple as, thank you, or I am grateful.
Try to be more intentional this week about telling others in your life that you are grateful for them. Expressing gratitude to one another helps us build our relationships with each other. You can call or text or send a note. Try to tell one person each day about your deep gratitude for what they bring to the world.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
Loving God,
Today we give thanks: for the sun that wakes us from our sleep, for the breath that enlivens us this very moment, for word and thought that connects us one to another, for quiet moments that offer us pause, for hopefulness that moves us forward, for your faithful presence with us always. Life is often difficult, rarely simple, and sometimes overwhelming. And yet — in all these small ways - we remember that you are with us and we are not alone.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
How do you express gratitude, and what are you grateful for? What are the things in our lives that get in the way of our gratitude?
What is a practice of gratitude that you would like to implement in your own life? Talk or journal about a plan that might help make that practice a more regular habit.
How does the noticing of goodness relate to your own sense of gratitude? How do you understand Paul’s admonition to, “give thanks in all circumstances”?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
How do you say thank you? Do you know how to say thank you in another language? Can you learn one other way of saying thank you? You can share how to say thank you in another language with your friends!
What are some things that you see or experience in the world that make you want to say thank you? You can just name them together or you could go for a walk around your neighborhood and talk about them as you see them.
God loves you, no matter what! Say thank you to God, or write a thank you letter to God for God’s love and goodness. You might also write or draw a thank you note to someone in your life you are grateful for. Be sure to tell them the things they have done to make you want to say thank you!
Meet This week’s writer!
Kelli Joyce is a priest in the Episcopal Church and a PhD student in theology at Vanderbilt University. She lives in Nashville with her wife, Bailey, and their dog, Amos.
To hear more from Kelli throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!
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