The Gratitude Path: The Power of the Turn Around
I recently went on a vacation to Charleston, South Carolina, and I loved going on walks around the downtown area. On my first evening there, while walking to dinner at a nearby restaurant, I made a wrong turn and realized I would have to turn around and retrace some steps. Turning around on the sidewalk was easy, but then I was going against the flow of foot traffic! Going against the flow felt awkward, but it’s what I needed to do to reach my destination.
In Luke 17 Jesus instructs ten lepers to go to the priest after they cry out for healing. They obey, and along the way they are healed. One of the lepers notices his healing and turns around on the path to return to Jesus and thank him. Imagine how awkward it must have been to make that turnaround, to go against the flow of the other nine lepers, eager to make good time to reach the priest? The world may try to tell us that choosing to turn around in gratitude and going against the flow of complaint is too much trouble. But there is power in making that turn. When we choose gratitude, we return to Jesus.
This year’s stewardship theme revolves around choosing “the gratitude path” with this story as our guide. It is largely based on Kent Millard’s book of the same. We could easily list our grievances in the year 2020, but the Lord invites us to turn around toward gratitude. We invite you to ponder how God has blessed you this year. We hope you will reflect on what about this church makes you grateful. Giving flows from the grateful heart, and we desire for this campaign to have firm roots in gratitude. Be on the lookout for stories from within our church, and we hope you might be willing to share your stories of gratitude on this path we travel with Jesus.
all good things to each of you,
Dr. D.