Learning To Be Grateful

Early this morning I woke with an old fashioned term rolling in my head… The Attitude of Gratitude… It rhymes and is easy to remember. But it is a lesson well learned to be thankful to those who have extended some blessing your way.

Not just feeling thankful but saying it…
Not just saying it, but doing it…
Not just doing it, but being Thankful!

Notice the emphasis... Feeling. Saying. Doing. Being. It’s not just feeling it, but showing your feelings by doing something about it! It represents your “being” attitude!

Through the years we are impacted with blessings that come from someone special, or even a group of folks that know how to be a blessing. Perhaps you have even been blessed by complete strangers! We think they know and understand how we may feel, but there is always a special feeling you get when someone thanks you for the blessing or gift you have given.

I was about six or so, and a man followed our family out of a restaurant and gave each of us kids a nickel for being so good around the table. (Mom says he was drunk!) I wish I had hung on to that nickel and framed it for heritage sake, but as a kid not understanding the value of the moment, I’m sure it was quickly spent on candy.

I’m sure we were prompted to say “thank you” but it seems inadequately given especially when you’re not sure what just happened. What do I remember about the restaurant? This is where I first tasted Stuffed Crab! Delicious! Kemah, Texas!

Here’s an exercise. Take a moment and be thankful to someone who has given you something special. Do not simply “say” you are thankful, but in some simple way let them know how you feel. Perhaps a simple note mailed and unexpectedly received is all that is needed. Use your imagination to find a way to express some gratitude in a special way.

Every so often, some line of Starbucks customers will start a chain of blessings. Pay for the customer behind you. It takes someone to pay for their own order, but include the order placed by the car behind. That customer ahead of you is long gone by the time you realize what has happened! You feel a warm and fuzzy thankfulness, so you pay for the car behind you. The chain is unbroken until someone stingy, or broke, comes through and cannot continue the experience.

This happened to us along the Columbia River in Washington a few years ago. It was a police officer that paid for our rather significant order and before we understood what was going on, the officer was gone on patrol. Of course, we continued the chain, but it made us drive more carefully because we did not want the officer to have to stop us!

Years ago, my pastor (Frank Jones) taught us how to give and expect nothing in return. Give a blessing anonymously. He would pull up to the toll booth, hand the attendant a roll of quarters and pay the toll for however many behind the roll would equal. Then he would speed away! I watched this anonymous blessing roll through the church as people blessed others and never expected recognition. My bride and I still do it today! 30+ years later. We feel the need to bless at a restaurant, and then leave before the recipient ever knows a thing about it!

Why do we struggle with showing gratitude? For some, it is simply a lesson they were never taught, or never received very well. For others, well, let’s just say there are many reasons some never say “thank you”. They will never learn how until they reach some crossroad in their life and realize all the blessings they have missed by keeping silent.

Here’s my thought today. Jesus was traveling towards Jerusalem and at an unnamed little village, there were ten lepers who stood afar off and cried out for Mercy. According to scripture, they knew who they were calling out to because they named him.

Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
(Luke 17:13)

Leprosy, it is said, was a very common and contagious disease of the day. In the Law of Moses (Leviticus 13:45, 14:2-3) Lepers were to be removed from everyone and had to stand afar off and identify themselves as being diseased. They would cry out to warn everyone they were Lepers.

Well, these ten obeyed the law, and from afar they cried for Mercy. But they knew who they were talking to! Not just some simple stranger, but it is probable that the reputation of Jesus had preceded him. Maybe they were waiting and hoping for an opportunity to get within shouting distance! Maybe, even maybe, they had traveled to where they heard he was going to be!

Jesus simply said, “Go, show yourselves to the priest.”

Can I read between the lines for a moment? No healing line. No big miracle thrust. No evangelism. No reporter on the scene to memorialize the event to the world. Nothing. Jesus is simply saying, “Trust me. Go to the priest and let them examine you. Go. Trust me.”

Without a big show, but with a lot of faith, Jesus performed a miracle without touching them, or saying any special words of healing, but depending on them to obey his words! Go and the priest will be there to confirm it. Just have faith with the words of Jesus: Go.

Trust me. Go. This rings in my spirit today. We often expect a big scene when we need something done! As the ten lepers obeyed, one man realized that they were being cleansed as they went to the priest.

“…And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.”
(Luke 17:14)

Scripture does not indicate that the priests had anything to do with the miracle, and it probably happened as they obeyed his commands. Trust me. Go.

Turning back to Jesus, one leper gave glory to God for the miracle. When he reached Jesus, he fell down at his feet with his face to the ground and gave thanks. Then the book of Luke says a unique thing: “…and he was a Samaritan.”

Samaritans were half Jewish and half Gentiles. Mixed heritage Jesus has had dealings with Samaritans already – The woman at the Well (John 4) and the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). His focus was not just on the Household of Israel, although he said this to the woman from Canaan (Matthew 15:24), rather, He declares he came to Seek and to Save the Lost! (Luke 19:10) Whoever they are. Wherever they are found.

Back to our returning former Leper. This one leper is face down to the ground in a humbled position. He gave thanks to Jesus! Jesus questions him, “Were there not ten that was cleansed? Where are the other nine?

Except for this stranger (foreigner),
could only this one return to give thanks to God?”

Do not the others have an attitude of gratitude? Are they so thoughtless and selfish? Do they not have a thankful bone in their newly cleansed body?

Jesus turns to the one with a better attitude and declares an even deeper miracle:

And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
(Luke 17:19 NKJV)

Notice two things. First. His “faith” brought him back to Jesus! Not only did he take the trip toward the Priest to acknowledge the cleansing, but he also returned to Jesus to show his gratitude! Second. This one thankful soul not only received his “cleansing”, but he also receives major healing! His “faith” made him “well” (“whole” in the KJV)… This phrase from Jesus using this word declared the man saved, delivered and protected. This same Greek word was used throughout the gospels and it has a deeper meaning than simply being healed.

• The woman with the issue of blood, made whole when she touched the hem of His garment. (Matthew 9:21-22)
• That ultimate salvation from sins at the pronouncement of his name at birth. (Matthew 1:21)
• The salvation that comes to the one who endures to the ending of it all. (Matthew 10:22)

Trust me... this is only the tip of the iceberg! Jesus is interested in more than simple healing. It is not hard for him! Read about his miracle with the man sick of the palsy (Mark 2:1-12) where he starts out forgiving the mans sins, but because of the struggling of the crowd who heard him forgive sin, he healed the body. Each action was an easy action for Jesus! With the Leper, that saving and preserving action that can keep us to the end is what we should be seeking for. More than healing…Preservation. Salvation.

For anything we receive as a gift, we should be truly thankful for it – you never know that your thankfulness will not simply open doors to something far greater. As with Jesus, someone may simply be waiting for the right response to show deeper blessings!

It’s never too late to backtrack through your memories.
Be thankful. It’s a great attitude!