Societies tend to devolve over time unless there are established rules of order in place. Common social courtesies, work attire, and social order are all places where entropy or devolution can occur. Pick any skill or sensibility, and you will find that it can be lost or distorted without careful attentions.
This is nothing new in the story of man. Biblical writers have paid attention to this throughout time and have reported the tendency to spin away from God’s original plan for the Creation. Cain kills Abel, the residents of Babel attempted to make a name for themselves by building a great tower, the people rescued by God cease to trust God for their welfare, and mankind has never ceased the outward spin into the abyss of chaos.
Chaos can be seen, of course, in the big movements away from God, but it can also be seen at the micro level. At the grocery store, in a family’s gathering at times of grief or joy, at work, in the neighborhood, and a thousand other places. Seen in a snarky reply or a dirty look. In ignoring the basic human graces toward one another. All this makes life feel like small grit sandpaper, rubbing and irritating life, rather than making it sing like an aria or a great ballad.
Take thankfulness, for example. Thankfulness is a response to life that comes from spiritual alertness and responsiveness. You absolutely will not be thankful if you do not take time to notice what is happening around you and for you. Like the rude fellow shopper who brushes by you hurriedly as you hold the door for them or pick up a dropped item for them – with no “thank you.”
Where did this come from? This inability or unwillingness to see and acknowledge the graces that are given by a generous God or by sharing people all around. How could we have come to the point of being such Cretans? Such ingrates? Individuals so self-centered that real gratitude has slipped from their consciousness?
Ingratitude is fueled by a self-centered life primarily. Like the first humans who asked, “Why shouldn’t we be like God?” Or like the Greek’s Narcissus who became enamored with his own image. Or like “helicopter parents’ children who think the world revolves around them.
Gratitude, on the other hand, must be nurtured. It is a response of humble awareness. In a Tic Toc world, we must be reminded that God intends us not to be “influencers” but servants. Who never come to believe that gifts are “deserved” but rather are graces.
Gratitude is like an afternoon nap. It causes us to quit striving to be first, acclaimed, praised, and rewarded. It brings to us the contentment of seeing the graces that are around us. Gratitude is like an afternoon nap because of the way it causes us to live in contentment rather than in competition.
Real gratitude must be expressed. It does not live in the social media world with its shout-outs and its announcements about “what I just got.” Gratitude is expressed in prayer to God. In the intentional and real expression of thanks by means of conversation, written thanks, and other expressions.
The next time you are tempted to do the lazy thing, give some thought to what the appropriate container for gratitude ought to look like. Most likely it will cost you something in terms of time and effort. It is never the stingy, “when I get around to it.”
Gratitude is a movement back toward God who created all things and loves it when we acknowledge that we are recipients of that grace. Praise be to God and not us!