Religion in the City: Gratitude

This last week while sitting by our beautiful Lake Morton, I was struck by a spirit of thankfulness for the moment I was living in. There is a Buddhist prayer that goes

“By the power and the truth of this practice, may all beings have happiness, and the causes of happiness,
May all be free from sorrow, and the causes of sorrow,
May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless,
And may all live in equanimity, without too much attachment and too much aversion,
And live believing in the equality of all that lives.”

Meditating there at the lake I was reminded of my mother’s evening prayer with me growing up. My little sister Michelle and I ended our days with the bedtime prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul….” Most of you probably know the little poetic prayer. The part of the prayer you probably do not know is the list of thanks that followed my sister’s and my prayer. “THANK YOU FOR Shelly and Chrisie and Mommy and Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, Laurie, Great Grandma, Meek’s Grandma and the WHOLE WORLD, Amen!”

This little repetitive prayer ending was a memorized list of thanksgiving to God for our immediate family. The prayer was uttered in the same way, about the same people, every night at about the same time. Even though I remember that my sister and I used to race through our list of gratitude to God, I can still remember the rhythm and the family nicknames my sister and I had given our family. Shelly was Michelle, Meek’s Grandma was a baby name I came up with for my dad’s mother because my dad’s brothers’ names were Mike and Mark. As I look back my little bedtime prayer, I can see now how it set the stage for the way I enter into my relationship, prayer, meditation and dialogue with God.

“Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his [a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.” ~Psalm 100 NIV

This last week in the Homeless Prayer Support group I lead, we had the theme of gratitude. I gave each participant a sheet of paper that listed the words “thank you” with a blank next to them. I told the group to put God as number one and Jesus as number two and then fill the rest of the blanks in with people, places, experiences, anything they were thankful for. I must tell any of you at home who might want to try this exercise that the first 10 are easy, the next 30 may seem pointless, even trite. But I warn you now the tears often come in the last 10 thank you’s.

Often the first 10 are friends and family, the next 30 are usually a puzzle of what you can list off the top of your head. But somewhere near the end of the 50 thank you statements, there is a spirit of brokenness, hurt, abandonment, joy and relief which is born. The people we should have thanked when they were alive– the teachers, family, or community that never left us, never gave up on us.

I wonder sometimes how different religious faith would be if believers entered into their prayer and meditation life with a spirit of gratitude rather than an energy of desire? I have found that my life and the lives of my clients usually feel the most ungrounded and disconnected when they have not taken the time to rejoice in what is rather than what we desire life to be. When we take the time to be thankful for the air we are breathing, the green of the trees above us or to notice the smile of the shop clerk or barista we normally disguard; we are in essence joining with the gifts, our creator. I believe that when we seek to be thankful and mindful of that which is we automatically begin to see our place and purpose within the world.

This week as you sit, walk, meditate or pray — before you seek God’s direction, your needs and the intercessions of others, first stop and give thanksgiving for the gifts and life God has already blessed you with.

“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what he has done.” ~I Chronicles 16:8

Chris Craig received his Master’s in Social Work from Tulane University and his Master’s in Pastoral Care & Counseling from Garrett Seminary. Chris guest preaches, leads spirituality classes, and works in social services in Lakeland. Chris is not ordained in any church, and his columns do not speak for any churches or organizations where he might be affiliated.