From Grumbling to Gratitude

As I sit and write I am still in the throes of Christmas preparations. So it only seems appropriate to push back for a moment to create some space and put into writing something of what I have been feeling for the last month.  Just below the veneer of the outer expressions of my life is an overwhelming sense of gratitude and thanks to God.  I have very deep feelings of thanksgiving and praise for what God has been able to accomplish in and though us in a short amount of time.

I came across this writing by Chaucer that expresses much of what I have simmering just below my emotional surface. 

There is at the back of all our lives an abyss of light, more blinding and unfathomable than any abyss of darkness; and it is the abyss of actuality, of existence, of the fact that things truly are, and that we ourselves are incredible and sometimes almost incredulously real.  It is the fundamental fact of being, as against not being; it is unthinkable, yet we cannot unthink it, though we may sometimes be unthinking about it; unthinking and especially unthanking. For he who has realized this reality knows that it does outweigh, literally to infinity, all lesser regrets or arguments for negation, and that under all our grumblings there is a subconscious substance of gratitude.

It is this last phrase which captures my attention.  The phrase that under all our life situations there is a “subconscious substance of gratitude.” This, to me, is a magnificent picture of how gratitude can transform even the most difficult life situations and circumstances.  It is a most precious gift that a soft heart will bloom and emerge into one that is grateful, thankful and appreciative. So in this writing I allow to become conscious what is present within me in the subconscious- that God is everpresent in our lives whether we give Him that expression or not!  This is the wonder of Advent.  That Christ has come, Christ is here and Christ will come again!  In other words, there never has been a time when God has not been present with us---Emmanuel!

May the New Year be a time when your subconscious gratitude will be given the water to bloom forth in a conscious expression of praise and gratitude in the way of Jesus, the way of faith and the way of transformation!  May you experience the joy of the journey and carry this with you to everyone you meet.  Peace of Christ to you and your family this new year!

Comments

[Ann]

Thanks for the reminder of the core of our being that longs to be expressed. It prompts me to make a commitment to live in the place that evokes praise and gratitude for all aspects of my life this year.