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I knew when I started college at Southeastern University that life as I knew it would be full of reading for the next five years. And not just reading, but reading that would require me to think about what I just read and quite possibly read it three or four more times before genuinely grasping what the author was saying. So there have been many days during the last three years that I have just wanted to stop reading, and then there are days, like Wednesday, when I read something so profound I’m still thinking about it three days later. And you guessed it; it centers around gratitude and ingratitude. 

On page 154 of his book, Encountering the Book of Psalms, C. Hassell Bullock writes:

“One of the the great tragedies of the human spirit is to become a prisoner of ingratitude, for ingratitude shuts the human spirit up in a world lightened only by the self, which is all too dim a light. It creates a dark dungeon of selfishness because there is no horizon to give perspective to an individualistic world. Ingratitude is a closed system that prohibits the individual from opening up to God and neighbor. Gratitude, on the other hand, throws the door to this prison wide open and liberates the soul to thank God for what he has done and to share this spirit of grateful elation with fellow human beings.”

Have you found yourself surrounded by darkness, unable to find your way out of a dungeon of despair? I think we can all find ourselves in moments like this, but there is an answer, find your gratefulness! If you feel there’s nothing to be grateful for, take a moment and walk outside. Be thankful for the trees that give us oxygen. Be grateful for the sun that provides us day and the moon that gives us night. Be grateful to God for the breath in your lungs. Be thankful for the laughter of your children. If we can start being grateful, I firmly believe, we will begin to see the prison doors of our hearts burst open, and we can be liberated into God’s freedom!

Worship is a great way to find our gratefulness. Here are a few links to songs you may enjoy!