Radical Gratitude

By Ellen Vaughn

I recently heard a story of two boys who were stranded at sea. Almost immediately after they pushed off, a riptide caught hold of their sailboat. The relentless current drove them far offshore. 

In an hour's time, they were miles from the coast with no food, no water, no life preservers, and no means of communication. It would be hours before anyone back home even realized they were missing.

During their first night on the open sea, the wind-chill factor dropped to below freezing. They lay awake in the boat shivering with fear and hypothermia. One day turned into a week, and their determination to survive dwindled. They passed the days talking about their best friends and favorite foods: banana splits and Mountain Dew®. Their tongues hardened with thirst and their mouths blistered. On the sixth day, they carved a farewell message to loved ones in the boat's hull and waited for death.

But the following morning, they woke to a dazzling rainbow. As they drifted along, a swell rose beneath them, lifting their boat high enough to see another vessel close by. There were two fishermen on board—a grey-bearded captain and his weather-beaten comrade: "angels," as the boys later called them. The men helped the boys from their craft, gave them water, and returned them safely home.

As I prepared for Thanksgiving this year, I couldn't help but think about these boys' dramatic story. The fragrant turkey and steaming dishes that were on our table represented God's great blessings all year long. We have everything we need, and so much more. In contrast to the desperate boys stranded at sea, we are warm and secure. And yes, we're thankful.

But imagine what our Thanksgiving celebration would be like if we had just drifted in from the sea. Ravenous, wasting away, having dreamed of rescue for so long, we'd be absolutely astonished to actually be safe. Our gratitude would overflow, bubbling out of us with tears, laughter, immeasurable relief, and joy. We'd be overwhelmed, desperate to bring our hungry friends to the table as well. Those who have been rescued from starvation are thankful for food in a way that the well-fed are not.

The spiritual parallel is obvious. Those who truly realize the enormity of their spiritual rescue overflow with gratitude for God's grace. They consume His Word and can't get enough of it. They want to tell everyone how they were lost and then found by Jesus. They bubble with joy. They just can't get over the fact God loves them and has delivered them from spiritual death, and they want their friends to be saved as well.

But what about those of us who've been on the safe road of faith for a while? Can we sit at the holiday table this year with this kind of wild, exhilarating thankfulness?

Yes. But in order to do so, we need to re-examine what thankfulness really is.

The Object of Our Gratitude

There are two types of gratitude; one secondary, the other primary. The secondary kind is being thankful for blessings received—the things that first come to mind around the Thanksgiving table: life, health, home, family, freedom, friends, food. It's a mindset of active appreciation for all good gifts, large and small.

Eighteenth-century preacher Jonathan Edwards called this "natural gratitude." It's a great thing, but it doesn't come easily when life is hard. Such conditional thankfulness can't sustain us in difficult times. Edwards says if we love God only because of what He gives us, our affection begins at the wrong end.

The other kind of appreciation is what Edwards called "gracious gratitude"—thankfulness not for what God gives, but for who God is. It's all about Him and our rejoicing in His goodness, love, power, and grace, regardless of any favors received. This sort of gratefulness is genuine evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life, and it grows in the midst of pain. We hear it in the intimate whispers of the psalmist who longs to know God more deeply, even as enemies surround him. We see it in the otherwise inexplicable conviction of Job: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." (Job 3:15 KJV)

The apostle Paul was brimming with this kind of gratitude. If threatened with death, as often happened, he said things like, "Fine. To die is gain!" If kept alive, fine again: "For me, to live is Christ!" (Philippians 1:21) He was unstoppable, unquenchable, full of thanks and peace and joy, not because of what he had, but because of Who he knew.

The Source of Genuine Thanks

Those who are full of gracious gratitude overflow like a fountain. They're spilling over with joy, worship, and mission. By the way they live and the words they say, thankful believers bear witness to the One who saved them. They're irrepressible—no one can stop them from going wherever God leads, wherever there are needs.

Some time ago I was helping prepare a party for several hundred adults at our children's school. We set up a beverage table with an enormous, silver fountain. It had a wide bottom basin with silver spigots, a smaller middle level with spouts, and a top basin with ivy-wrapped columns. A friend and I struggled with a huge, heavy plastic tub of sloshing lemonade, dipping pitchers into it and dousing the top tier of the fountain to get it going. The point was for the spigots and spouts to flow.

Nothing.

We tried again. Dribbles, then drabs.

We poured in more and more pitcherfuls, vainly hoping that doing the same thing over and over would somehow get different results. Meanwhile, thirsty people were circling the table, cups in hand. Why wasn't it working?

Then, someone had the radical thought: "Why don't we plug it in?"

Yes. Once connected to the power source, the fountain flowed, constantly replenished, brimming with refreshment for the thirsty guests.

The beverage dispenser at the school party is a picture that has often fit my life. In spite of how much I know I must "abide in" Christ, as Jesus put it in John 15:5, my power cord slips so easily from the socket. And there I am again, sweating and toting the bale myself rather than bubbling with the Spirit's fresh power.

So, how do we remain plugged in?

I've found that a purposefully grateful heart is the key to authentic renewal. Our spiritual power depends on a moment-by-moment bond with God. And most simply, we build that bond by thanking Him in all things (Ephesians 5:20), not only for what He gives, but for who He is. We practice the presence of God by showing gratitude for His incredible, gracious character.

The Story of Our Rescue

Just what made the apostle Paul bubble with this kind of radical gratitude? Here's one reason: he remembered his rescue. Throughout his life, every time you'd turn around, Paul was telling the story of how Jesus had rescued him. Paul had been a puffed-up Pharisee, full of himself, full of misplaced pride in his religious good works. Then, Jesus knocked him off his high horse on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9:4) Christ's light blinded Paul, then Christ's love saved him.

Paul knew he'd been rescued. He called himself the "chief of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15) and rejoiced in the miracle of deliverance from sin and spiritual death. Overflowing with gratitude for so great a salvation, he chose to constantly remember what spiritual starvation had been like. And so, for the rest of his life, he was truly thankful for the feast of grace.

Writer Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who lived through the horrifying darkness of Auschwitz, once said, "No one is as capable of gratitude as those who have escaped the kingdom of night." By the grace of God, believers have escaped from the kingdom of night into the Kingdom of Light. The more we remember this great deliverance, the more our radical gratitude will flow like an unstoppable fountain.

This Thanksgiving, at our house, we listed particular things we're thankful for—everything from soccer to our dog to pumpkin pie to friends and family. That kind of gratitude is good.

But radical gratitude is best. It comes when we go around the table and tell the stories of how God delivered us from spiritual death. We remember how we were spiritually poor, wretched, and starving—and how a merciful and gracious God found and rescued us. And then the real thanksgiving begins—overflowing our life and spilling over into others.

To purchase Radical Gratitude: Discovering Joy in Everyday Thankfulness by Ellen Vaughn, please visit our online bookstore.

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