On saying thank you
I live in a part of the world where our society takes time during the fall season to stop and think about all of the benefits and blessings in life for which we are thankful. When I reflect on the attitude of thankfulness, I’m reminded of an event during Jesus’ ministry recorded in Luke 17:11-19.
Jesus encountered 10 lepers as he traveled to Jerusalem. They asked Jesus to heal them, and He did. The 10 men had something in common — their physical affliction. But, they also had a profound difference — one of them was a Samaritan. Most Jews of Jesus’ day despised Samaritans; they looked down on them as inferior individuals.
Following their healing, only one of the men returned to say thank you to Jesus — the Samaritan. This social outcast offers us an important reminder in our day: He highlights the importance of offering thanks to God and others.
I'm afraid many people in our generation have forgotten just how important words of thanks are. Maybe it is because of what we have been influenced by in our respective cultures. Sociologists refer to the problem as the psychology of affluence. We don't have to be rich or well-to-do to be impacted. We simply require exposure to it to become infected.
The psychology of affluence tells us that nice things should come our way or people should be good to us because we deserve it. It is a birthright and a privilege rather than an aspiration or a goal. The psychology of affluence also tells us we have a responsibility to look out for our own interests and happiness rather than think about others.
With this cultural influence, we tend to forget the "magic words" — thank you. We simply take what comes our way and go on. When people do nice things for us, we figure they owe it to us. They are just treating us the way we deserve to be treated. Lucky for them they saw how deserving we are and responded accordingly!
My hope is that we as a Christian community can be better than our cultures; that we can recapture the wonder of the thankful Samaritan.
Why is giving thanks so important?
I trust we will take time today — wherever we are in the world — to offer a word of thanks to God for all of life's blessings we enjoy so bountifully. I trust we will always remember to thank friends and family members for what they mean to us. May God help us learn this important lesson from the thankful Samaritan.
Frank Moore
General Editor, Church of the Nazarene
I copied this from the NCN (Nazarene Communications Network). Frank has been a friend since our college days at MidAmerica Nazarene University. Thank You, Frank!
I live in a part of the world where our society takes time during the fall season to stop and think about all of the benefits and blessings in life for which we are thankful. When I reflect on the attitude of thankfulness, I’m reminded of an event during Jesus’ ministry recorded in Luke 17:11-19.
Jesus encountered 10 lepers as he traveled to Jerusalem. They asked Jesus to heal them, and He did. The 10 men had something in common — their physical affliction. But, they also had a profound difference — one of them was a Samaritan. Most Jews of Jesus’ day despised Samaritans; they looked down on them as inferior individuals.
Following their healing, only one of the men returned to say thank you to Jesus — the Samaritan. This social outcast offers us an important reminder in our day: He highlights the importance of offering thanks to God and others.
I'm afraid many people in our generation have forgotten just how important words of thanks are. Maybe it is because of what we have been influenced by in our respective cultures. Sociologists refer to the problem as the psychology of affluence. We don't have to be rich or well-to-do to be impacted. We simply require exposure to it to become infected.
The psychology of affluence tells us that nice things should come our way or people should be good to us because we deserve it. It is a birthright and a privilege rather than an aspiration or a goal. The psychology of affluence also tells us we have a responsibility to look out for our own interests and happiness rather than think about others.
With this cultural influence, we tend to forget the "magic words" — thank you. We simply take what comes our way and go on. When people do nice things for us, we figure they owe it to us. They are just treating us the way we deserve to be treated. Lucky for them they saw how deserving we are and responded accordingly!
My hope is that we as a Christian community can be better than our cultures; that we can recapture the wonder of the thankful Samaritan.
Why is giving thanks so important?
- It requires humbling ourselves.
- It requires taking time out of our schedules to stop and make a call, pay a visit, or write a note. In other words, it costs us something.
- It implies that someone has done something to help us, and we want to acknowledge it.
- If forces us to stop thinking about our agenda and put ourselves in another person's shoes as we see how they have honored us.
- It puts life in perspective, reminding us that as much as you'd like to think so, we are not self-sufficient; we really do need other people.
- It causes us to evaluate our performance and ask how we can pass thankfulness on to another person, like a chain reaction.
I trust we will take time today — wherever we are in the world — to offer a word of thanks to God for all of life's blessings we enjoy so bountifully. I trust we will always remember to thank friends and family members for what they mean to us. May God help us learn this important lesson from the thankful Samaritan.
Frank Moore
General Editor, Church of the Nazarene
I copied this from the NCN (Nazarene Communications Network). Frank has been a friend since our college days at MidAmerica Nazarene University. Thank You, Frank!
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