Choosing Gratitude

 

Today - I am grateful. Thankful that I am still alive and with my wonderful wife, Diane. Really thrilled to be free from pain and recovered from 22 years of the most appalling agony of chronic pancreatitis. On this my birthday I give thanks to God for his amazing grace, love and his faithfulness to me over 68 years. 

In the midst of a global pandemic I am rejoicing that God is still in charge, and that the virtues of self-sacrifice, love for one's fellow people, and care for the sick and dying, that Jesus so exemplified in his life, are still being shown around us. I see immense pain and suffering on every hand, but I also see the compassion of Christ writ large.

I choose gratitude. It is not always easy. Jesus taught us that gratitude should be our attitude in what we call 'The Beatitudes'. Light chases away darkness. Hope dispels gloom. Love expels fear.

I don't blame the government, or my upbringing, or the shady hand of 'lady luck', for anything that has happened in my life, or is going on in the world around me. There is an intruder in God's good creation. The pandemic and my decades of agony, are his fingerprints. But there are other marks I choose to concentrate upon. Nail prints for instance. The scars from a crown of thorns. A discarded stone and an empty tomb.

So, the best gift I can receive today is the one that sets me free. Free from bitterness and self-pity. Free to be me! Free to say 'Thank you Lord!' and mean it. I choose to be grateful.

I was taught as a child to yell a loud "thank you" to the driver as I jumped down from the bus. Expressing our gratitude was expected of us as part of our growing up. It was simply regarded as good manners but I have come to see that there is much more to gratitude than this. Saying "thanks" is an important part of our humanity and offers dignity to the recipient as well as humility to the giver. Being unable to be grateful leads to a shrinking of our soul, a diminishing of our humanity, and a trip wire in our approach to relationships.

During the 75th anniversary commemorations of D-Day here in Britain and across the sea in Normandy we have heard several expressions of gratitude. Her Majesty the Queen ended her speech by saying thank you, as did President Trump, Monsieur Macron and Mrs Theresa May. In the presence of the veterans, most of them now in their 90s and perhaps there for the last time, it just seemed so appropriate to be grateful. These world leaders set the standard for us and spoke on our behalf, but they also gave a pointer to something that can really oil the wheels of our society and make a change for the better.

Diane and I will travel to Newcastle tomorrow. On Monday and Tuesday of next week I will be in two different hospitals there - the Freeman one day and the Royal Victoria the next. It is the second anniversary of the amazing space-age surgery that changed my life and set me free from 22 years of some of the worst physical pain known to humanity. I am really looking forward to seeing the Professor and other members of the team, looking them in the eyes and saying "thank you".

Gilbert K Chesterton said "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder". Yet, maybe gratitude needs to be shown in more than words. Acts of kindness, enquiries about the well-being of others, even generous tipping can all be further expressions of such grace.

Respect has many outfits to wear and gratitude is one of them. So - let gratitude be your attitude!

The Time for Flowers

The time for flowers has come. Well - not quite because as I write on the 28th February 2018 there will not be a leap year day tomorrow. But on the 29th February exactly 50 years ago, Diane and I first met. We both attended a car treasure hunt being organised by her local church and Diane was in charge (when isn't she?? Only joking my love.. hmm). I looked at her and thought "Wow"! Then "I'll bet she's already taken" and with that thought gave up and focused on winning the game. Afterwards we were sitting in the coffee bar area when she came up to me and asked "would you like some more soup"? My answer was to shuffle up and make room for her to sit down and we had our first chat. Half a century later we are still chatting.

We both feel that we found the treasure that day. When folk talk about love at first sight it hardly seems real. It is, in fact, quite rare, but the idea is both alluring and romantic. That was our experience, though, and we have been 'Eric and Diane' ever since. Now our desire is to do life together right up until we walk through heaven's gate hand in hand. To know and love one other person as deeply for as long is a great privilege, and one that we do not take for granted. Diane has sat beside what she thought would be my death-bed more than once, and we have said our final farewells to each other more times than we would have ever wanted, but God has been good to us and spared us so that we can rejoice in this day.

I have recently started keeping a 'gratitude diary' in which I write briefly down things for which I am thankful every day. It helps me to stay focused on positive things when weakness or problems might distract. Today I have plenty to write down. I hope you would have too. If you have not been blessed with the sort of relationship that I have described above please don't be too disheartened. We are all individuals and are all different, but God is still good and has good plans for our lives. Maybe there are still things that, despite the winter cold, you can join me in rejoicing about today? It may be cold and dark outside, but the time for flowers is also here.