Tags
A Holy Experience, Ann Voskamp, Colossians 3:15-17, Giving Thanks, Jesus as the kindness and love of God, Kindness Blog, One Thousand Gifts, Simple acts of charity, Taking in the harvest, Thanksgiving, Titus 3:4-6
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In preparation for Canadian Thanksgiving, I have been reflecting on my favorite passage in Scripture where the Apostle Paul calls Jesus a wonderful knick-name in Titus 3:4-6:
When the kindness and love of God appeared, He saved us…
There is a bit of play on words, as the Greek word for kindness is χρηστός (chréstos – root word for kindness) – a mere vowel difference from Χριστός (Christos or Christ).
Christ is the kindness & love of God in person.
His kindness and love inspires a life of gratitude as we come to know that all things are created through Him, and for His pleasure. And whatever we receive are the gifts of His inherent kindness and generosity.
Thus this Thanksgiving, we do well to be intentional about the habits of gratitude. I direct you to two blogs that focus on thankfulness and kindness:
A Holy Experience written by Ann Voskamp features the theme of recognizing the “one thousand gifts” in our lives.
She manages to write prolifically, to inspire her readers to discover the manifold gifts in their lives. Let me encourage you to take the “Joy Dare“:
It’s habits that can imprison you and it’s habits that can free you.
But when thanks to God becomes a habit — so joy in God becomes your life.
The other blog to which I draw your attention is: “the kindness blog.”
KINDNESS BLOG Celebrates the angels of kindness that walk among us every day. These are the people who freely give their help, that lend a listening ear to a sad soul’s tragic tale, that share what resources they have, that tolerate, that seek to understand another person’s plight and actively work to uplift others from poverty, oppression and loss.
From the simplest acts of charity through to grand, life-changing gestures of kindness, we publish images, videos, true life stories, personal reflections, meditations and other various media.
Enjoy. Give thanks. And get to know the One who is the kindness and love of God in person.
More Enigma Than Dogma 
At the end of each day I like to record a “special thing” for that day and give thanks to God for it. My “special thing” for the day can be as simple as “the way the sunlight shone on the coloured leaves”, or as exciting as the announcement of a new family member on the way, or an upcoming wedding. On days when I am feeling blue and think that I can’t possibly come up with anything in my day to be thankful for, the habit of seeking and recording a special thing for the day can serve to change my mood and help me go to sleep with a prayer of thanks instead of a litany of complaints.
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I appreciate your intentionality of gratitude. I am finding that I must develop the “discipline of thanksgiving”. I suppose it’s easy when there is so much for which to be thankful; it is more difficult if one lives in constant pain & loss – but I suspect over all this is the perspective of seeing with faith that which is sometimes hidden. Passages like Col 3:17 and I Thess 5:18 point to a different worldview than merely looking through a distorted lens of complaint. Your example shows that even on days when you feel blue, you are carried, as it were, in “the habit of seeking & recording.” Thanks for your note; Shalom.
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