Rejoicing Amidst Adversity?

The sixth principle in getting through adversity--rejoice in the journey makes the trip easier.

“The Well of Providence is deep,” Mary Webb says. “It's the buckets we bring to it that are small."

This quote always brings to mind images of the fabled Fountain of Youth.  An ancient stone well, its rocks chipped and weathered by the wind, moss slowly creeping up its sides.  We look into the well and see only damp-smelling darkness.

We have come to ‘draw water from the well of salvation’—but find our small bucket has a hole in it. Salvation keeps running out the hole; we keep thirsting in the midst of plenty.

This concept of rejoicing in the midst of adversity seems one such leaky bucket.  Nevertheless, our hero of the swamp, “went on his way rejoicing” through four more days of walking through the alligator infested swamp—knee-deep in muddy water, without food or companionship.

Wherefore the rejoicing?

He wasn’t happy to begin with. When in adversity you don’t rejoice.  Like our hero, when shooting pain comes out of the blue it is incapacitating.  All he could do was sit on that log for a while in the middle of the swamp. 

But the adversity caused him to fall to his knees in prayer.  And his knee was healed. Problems solved?  No—he was still hungry, wet, dirty, companionless, didn’t know where his next meal was coming from, didn’t know when the swampy land would end…

He still had lots to grumble about.  But he choice to focus on the one thing he had going for him.  He could walk out of the swamp.  And so he chose to be grateful for the gift granted him—he chose to rejoice in the journey in the midst of adversity.

Gratitude for present blessings served to plug the hole in the bucket he brought to the well.  And so he was able to draw and drink.

“Not what we have but we enjoy constitutes our abundance,” as Epicurus says.

Living Gratitude: the Sum of the Matter (Part 4)

“To live gratitude is to touch Heaven,” Johannes A. Gaertner asserts (as does Pres. Monson). 

The grateful heart is the grace-filled heart.  Cultivating gratitude, is much like priming an old pump—it takes work but eventually the waters come rushing out (a little rusty tasting at the start perhaps).

Gratitude awakens our senses to the health and happiness we already posses (even if both are not the desired ‘full measure').  Gratitude opens our hearts to the love God has for us, and the wonders that surround us in the ordinary. Gratitude serves to magnify and enrich our blessings, our spirits and our relationship with others.

“Hem your blessings with thankfulness,” the saying goes, "so they don't unravel.”

Heart-felt words of thanksgiving are characteristics of divinity.  So often during his mortal and post-mortal ministries the Lord gratefully acknowledged: “Father, I thank thee…” (Luke 10:21, John 11:41, 3 Nephi 19:20, 3 Nephi 19:28)

As a characteristic of deity, gratitude is to be mirrored in his children.  Is it easy to keep the commandment to be thankful?  Is it easy to take life with gratitude rather then for granted? 

No.  Absolutely not!

Heavenly Help and Promise

But our omniscient, loving Father in Heaven knows that and has provided for it.

“Ye cannot bear all things now,” he tenderly told the early Saints, “nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.” (D&C 78:18)

Then comes the promise for those who accept the Lord’s leading:

“And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.” (D&C 78:19)

Creed is Worthless without Conduct

Of course knowing the blessings that can come by pactising gratitude is worthless and meaningless without acting on it.  Knowledge is always so.  Just like the two blades of a pair of scissors...knowing and doing, faith and works...go together. (see Mere Christianity)

"Between the knowing and the doing," Henry van Dyke reminds us, "there is a deep gulf. Into that abyss the happiness of many a man slips, and is lost. There is no peace, no real and lasting felicity for a human life until the gulf is closed, and the continent of conduct meets the continent of creed, edge to edge, lip to lip, firmly joined forever."

“Knowledge is only half of intelligence,” Nels L. Nelson reminds us in his magnificent Scientific Aspects of Mormonism. “To stop here is to be falsely educated.

“If, however, the truth perceived becomes a dynamic fact in a man's character...if, in short, it ceases to be something in a man, and becomes the man himself, changing the very color and texture of his soul, then knowledge has passed over into power — or character—or wisdom—or, to adopt the term used by Joseph Smith, has passed over into intelligence; and it is such a process alone that represents true education.”

One Way to Live Gratitude

So let’s say we decide gratitude is a blessing and strive to cultivated it...how does that look?  How do live it?

“One way of expressing gratitude,” Richard L. Evans tells us, “would be to use well what we have—material things, talents, time, opportunities, sympathy, compassion.”

And that is the sum of this facet of glory.

Gratitude: Power to re-awaken Wonder (Part 3)

We can only be said to be alive,” Thornton Wilder says, “in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

So often in life we take our treasures for granted.  Possibly because through constant contact the novelty wears off and they become ordinary.  I remember when my parents first got chickens how excited my brothers were to collect the eggs.  For the first week.

Our treasures so often fade into the woodwork and we don’t see them anymore.  And so we go looking for more…and more…and more…and wonder why they quickly disappear once we have them in our grasp.

How do we re-awaken to wonder?  How do we re-awaken to the treasures we already have? The answer is one you probably have heard many times.  It is a common answer because it commonly works when applied--but is, sadly, commonly not used.

Gratitude helps us remember that the ordinary, somewhat mundane things around us, are treasures.  Instead of following the "stale trick" of taking life for granted, G.K. Chesterton urged his readers a century ago, we should take life as granted…and the only response to a granted life is gratitude.

"By small means are great things brought to pass" is a truism that threads through the ages bringing miracles in its wake.  Young children, "small means" by themselves, are marvelous examples of treasuring and being enthralled by the ordinary.  For to them it is extraordinary—wonders are all around them…

 “A child of seven is excited,” G.K. Chesterton remarked, “by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon.  But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door.” (Orthodoxy)

What other treasures are sources of wonder for little kids?

Boxes for one.  What a marvelous thing a box is!  You can (if it’s large enough) sit in a box, or put stuff in a box, or take stuff out of a box, or squish a box…amazing!

And then there are light switches.  Just by hitting a switch on the wall a darkened room can suddenly be illuminated and you can see everything in it.  Hit the switch again and the room is awash in darkness.  What power!

Through cultivating gratitude we are conscious of the treasure, the grace of ordinary things, people, ideas.  Just like hitting a light switch can illumine a darkened room, gratitude can illuminate the wonder of the ordinary—and we see it in its true light—extraordinary, a freely granted gift, our inheritance upon being born in the world.

What have you inherited? What treasures can you discover in the ordinary?  

Here are some treasures I’ve inherited:

• Gospel in its fullness
• Scriptures printed and in my own language
• Ancestors with great faith, great work-ethic and great hearts
• Song of birds in the early morning
• Sweet perfume of rain-washed lilacs
• Beauty of pines frosted with snow
• Hot water
• A variety of fresh fruit and vegetables
• Electricity
• Plumbing

...and, of course, boxes and light switches.

Gratitude: The Root of Joy (Part 2)

“The root of joy is gratefulness...” Brother David Steindl-Rast asserts. “It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful."

Being grateful seems to open the door to more and more blessings!  But what--exactly--does the word mean?  We know what it implies but lets examine the etymology for greater understanding of this enriching virtue.

The etymology suggests:

• Gratitude—‘quality of condition of being grateful’ (Oxford English Dictionary Online)
• Grateful—full of grace (1828 Webster’s; Oxford English Dictionary Online 2010)
• Grace—‘free unmerited love and favor of God’ (1828 Webster’s Dictionary)

…therefore to be grateful is to be full of grace.

Gratitude is a prerequisite to joy, Brother Steindl-Rast says in the quote above. 

Hold that thought and come with me to the Mount over there.  The one with the crowd of people.  The one where the Galilean rabbi is giving a sermon.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,” the Saviour tells them, “for they shall be filled…”

Filled with what?  Not with food, surely—for they are not hungry and thirsty for physical food (this time round)…

“…filled with the Holy Ghost…” the risen Saviour clarified to the Nephites several years later. 

The Holy Ghost…a comforter, a teacher, a testifier, a grace-giver.  One of the fruits of having the Holy Ghost’s presence in our life is—yes, you guessed it—JOY!

Thus in opening our hearts in gratitude we open them to grace…even the free unmerited love of the Godhead through the Holy Spirit.  And in receiving the Spirit’s grace we also open the door of our heart to a host of other renewing and enlivening virtues…joy among them.

Gratitude: Duty or Blessing? (Part 1)

It seems to me," C.S. Lewis mused, "that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers us because, at the moment, we expected some other good…God shows us a facet of glory and we refuse to look at it because we are still looking for the old one...” (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer)

  

The proverbial solution, of course, is to remember the good God has given us—to count our blessings and express gratitude for them.

"When sorrow and failure come to us," William George Jordan reminds us, "we regard them as misdirected packages that should be delivered elsewhere." Counting our blessings at such times can seem an onerous duty rather then a divine gift.  But is expressing gratitude just a duty, one of many commands of God?

“Health and happiness are what our Father in Heaven wants for us,” Harold B. Lee reminds us,  “and that is why He has given us commandments to keep, and not for any other reason.”

And Thomas S. Monson, in his keynote address “The Divine Gift of Gratitude,” assures us: “Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love.”

Health and Happiness…feeling God’s Love…what lovely gifts…but how is gratitude a path to them?

M. J. Ryan offers one explanation: “Gratitude creates happiness because it makes us feel full, complete; gratitude is the realization that we have everything we need, at least at the moment.” (Attitudes of Gratitude)

So how do we cultrivate gratitude when those "misdirected" packages arrive in our lives? After all, the post office of heaven does not accept returns.

"A prayerful life ,” Thomas S. Monson assures us, “is the key to possessing gratitude.”

As Shakespeare’s Henry VI implored:

“O Lord, that lends me life,

 Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!”