Tis the season....for people to start thinking about and verbalizing what they are thankful for.  You see it on social media, where people post new everyday, what they are thankful for during the month of November.  

I suppose I am following that trend in my own way.  I decided to write my daily words of thankfulness
on this one lone pumpkin that was the only one to grow in my poor neglected garden this year.  I had help writing on my pumpkin from some of my church family, when we gathered over the weekend for some fall festivities, including a hay ride.  I asked each family to write down what they were thankful for.  After everyone left,  I read the words of thankfulness on the pumpkin, and thought about what it truly means to live intentionally each day with gratitude.

What if, instead of just the month of November, this giving of thanks, this writing on social media (or pumpkins for that matter!), was done every day of the year,  every year for the rest of our lives?  Why do we narrow it down to one month, to 30 days of our 365?  That is less than 10% of our year that we choose to focus on thankfulness.  So what if, we woke every day with a word of thanks, or ended each day with words of thanks?  I wonder how that would change us?  This might make a good topic for research.

In fact, it already is.   Since the early 2000's there has been growing research into the science of gratitude.  The University of California, Berkely, and University of California, Davis has recently committed over $5 million to study and expand a database about gratitude,  to site scientific evidence of gratitude as it relates to personal health, relationship and workplace well-being.  Research grants and dissertation projects have been awarded with results to be reported in 2014. You can read all about this on their web page, the Greater Good Science center. 

I invite them to look at the dissertation of thanks written on my pumpkin, written by people who are experiencing the trials of life, yet who at their core are thankful people.  And I would invite them to start including God and His word in their research!  They think they have discovered something new?  Or perhaps they just want scientific evidence to prove what we Christians already know;  that there IS a direct relationship linking
thankfulness to peace and joy within ourselves.  It is not a secret, it is not a hidden code, it is plainly written in God's word, the Bible.  

Rejoice always;  pray without ceasing;  in everything give thanks, for this is Gods' will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God, and the peace of God, which passes all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4: 7


Do you notice it?  Do you see the correlation between joy, prayer, peace and thankfulness? 
Do we really need a $5 million scientific study to prove this to us?

Let's drill down a little deeper by examining the word thanksgiving in the original language of the New Testament, koine Greek.  The Greek word for thankfulness is 'eucharistos', which has a connotation of giving, a giving of recognition outside of ourself.  It is not simply being glad for something, or glad we are experiencing something.  Gladness is directed inward.  Thankfulness is directed outward-it is recognising someone beyond ourselves that we give our thanks to.  Inside the Greek word for thankfulness is 4 letters which spell 'char'.  Char or chara is the greek word for joy.  So joy is hidden inside thankfulness. It seems simple to me, joy is released as we display thankfulness, true thankfulness, the daily through thick and thin kind of  thankfulness. Without it, our joy gets squashed, and peace does not reign in our hearts and minds.  Within the well of thankfulness is a spring from which  joy comes.  Joyful people are thankful people.  And our thankfulness is not just in what we see as good, it is in everything, as 1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us.

Sometimes it is hard to be thankful, hard to find the joy.  Perhaps that is why the admonition to pray is found in both of the above verses.  God never expects us to do it alone.  He is always there, offering His help, His strength, so that in everything, we can give thanks.  And sometimes, it is just a matter of practice.  If we daily practice giving thanks for everything:  big things and little things, trials and triumphs, things or people that we love and things or people that challenge us, then I think perhaps it won't be long and our attitude of gratitude will make us a walking talking dissertation on thankfulness! 
And maybe of joy and peace also!


Who needs a $5 million study?  We have the word of God, and it is priceless and full of truth and wisdom for joyful living here, right now, as well as a roadmap to our home in heaven.  We have so much to be thankful for, don't we?  Happy practicing of giving thanks!  
Happy thanks giving!

It's a funny thing, these feelings of ours.  They become the lens which colors how we look at our world.    We allow people, circumstances or things to be the paint brush that applies  color to the lens we look through.  I am not sure it should be that way.  Are we so flimsy in our faith and our resolve that we allow outside things to affect our inside?  Usually when we least  'feel' like it, we are called to love and serve and trust and boy does that put us in a grumpy or mopey kind of way.  Saps the joy right out.

The words above are from a children's book on Godly virtues that I was reading to my grandchildren.  The story was about a little bunny wanting to be happy.   I read it to them, but I was the one listening intently.   I took it to the depths of me, and socked this sentence away, so I could really reflect on this simple little statement.

Joy comes from the inside out. I know that, I mean intellectually, I really know that.  I have taught that in a ladies study.  And I am in the process of putting the finishing touches on a 4 week Bible study about joy, titled, "Choosing Victory: Living victoriously, abundantly with joy in the midst of trials."  I understand that happiness is situation based, meaning if this happens, then I will be happy. Happiness is outside in.  Happiness is motivated by what gives us pleasure.  I get  it, that happiness is something we Americans in particular, are fond of pursuing.  After all, it is right there in our Declaration of Independence,
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal, that they are empowered by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The idea is that we pursue or chase after happiness, that it is a thing to be obtained from outside of one's self.  Note it doesn't say, the right to be and stay happy, just the right to pursue it , to chase after it.  And isn't that what we do?  Our society and the media say in order to be happy, you must have certain things, and be a certain way.  Be busier, do more, have more, become more. Oh, and be sure to post it on social media so others can see your happiness.  But it is never enough, is it?  That is because happiness is elusive, it likes to be chased, but doesn't reward for long once captured.  It always leaves you wanting more.

I believe that children's book was so right.  Joy is from the inside out.  It is a state of being, not a state of having.  It is not something people create by their own efforts.  Joy is an emotional pattern, an abiding sense of contentment, and peace, not dependent on situations, people or circumstances. I understand the difference between happiness and joy.  I know joy is what the Christian is to have, that deep abiding sense of joy, based not on externals, but on a right relationship with God.

So here is my confession.  I know all that, I believe all that, but occasionally I don't 'feel'  all that.  Sometimes I allow the outside;  the struggles, frustrations,  injustices or people, to affect my inside, and  attempt to rob me of joy, resolve and hope.

I read something recently that made me wonder if the reason I allow these 'joy robbing' moments is about where my hope is placed.   I was raised to be a very strong, independent person, one who is confident in her self and abilities. It has taken me a lifetime to realign from trusting myself to trusting God.  (Whew...still working on that.)  Occasionally, the self trust rears its ugly head, and I trust me more than I trust Him.  This is the quote I saw hanging in a store that made the gears in my mind start turning.
                             Hope is something that happens between take off and landing.

I do fine with the take off, but occasionally the turbulance gets to me.   It makes me doubt the landing part, you know the outcome that I was trusting and hoping about.   If I could just put all my hope in my God all the time, and not in me or any other person, then I think I would have the joy of a child, who says to her Daddy, "Catch me Dad", and then without thinking leaps into his arms.  She has no doubt the  outcome of her leap will be that her dad will catch her.  It is one thing to say we trust God, but trust without the hope in an outcome, isn't much trust is it?

Right in the very middle of the bible, you will find this key verse.   "It is better to trust in the Lord, than to trust in man." Psalms 118:8  If we trust in man (or self), we will be let down, we will be disappointed, and our joy will be snatched from us. Only trusting and placing our hope in Him will never disappoint.  It's right there inside all of us who have named Jesus as Lord and Savior and willingly obey Him: that well spring within that leads to eternal life, but also that fills us with love, hope, peace and joy.  Jesus himself says,
"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." John 15: 11

His joy IS inside us.  We experience that joy whent it goes from the inside out  as we trust and place our hope in Him and only Him.   I think perhaps for the little girl in the picture, the joy was 'in the leap'.  Here's hoping we can experience 'joy in the leap', as we learn to more fully trust and hope in our God.