Theologian Christine D. Pohl describes how gratitude impacts our relationships with others:
When our lives are shaped by gratitude, we’re more likely to notice the goodness and beauty in everyday things. We are content; we feel blessed and are eager to confer blessing. We are able to delight in the very existence of another human being. In a grateful community, individuals and their contributions are acknowledged and honored, and there is regular testimony to God’s faithfulness, through which the community experiences the joys of its members. Expressions of gratitude help make the community alive to the Word, the Spirit, and God’s work.
Such a community is “a beautiful land” whose culture is grace and whose inhabitants see life as a gift. In this land, we often find abundant forgiveness and frequent celebrations. While we might assume that individuals and communities grow toward holiness and goodness primarily through the hard work of discipline, correction, and challenge, we tend to underestimate the importance of grace. The emphasis on loving God and loving neighbor … is most fruitful as it is rooted in a deep understanding of God’s prior love for us.
Pohl shares how a small Christian inter-racial community in Mississippi was able to find grace and gratitude for one another in the midst of conflict:
During a time of crisis in their community, a friend from the outside explained to them, “The way you grow into God’s love isn’t by making demands of each other…. You do it by giving each other grace.” Grace expressed as love “when it didn’t seem fair, or reasonable,” and “when others were being complete jerks.”
Their wise advisor continued,
The truth is, we can’t stand the idea of not fixing each other. But insofar as we can fix people at all, we can do it only by forgiving them, and giving them grace, and leaving them to our loving Father. Grace assumes sin. When we ask you to accept each other, we aren’t asking you to ignore hurts between you. People of grace speak the truth. But in an atmosphere of grace, truth seems less offensive and more important….
[A church leader] describes the community’s delight when it was introduced to the recipe for a “new culture of grace.” The ingredients for life in community were surprisingly simple: “It is enough to get the love of God into your bones and to live as if you are forgiven. It is enough to care for each other, to forgive each other, and to wash the dishes.”
When we more fully understand the grace we’ve received, we are able to turn outward in gratitude and generosity. Gratitude becomes “our home in the presence of God,” or, in Henri Nouwen’s words, an “intimate participation in the Divine Life itself” that “reaches out far beyond our own self to God, to all of creation, to the people who gave us life, love, and care.”
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| NOV 26, 2025 Seeing Beyond “Me and God” |
| Can I have a relationship with God without going to church? Church leaders want people to believe that church participation is essential and that committing to a local congregation is part of one’s Christian duty. On the other hand, the American church—perhaps more than any other—has emphasized having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” The notion that it’s just “me and God” fits our romantic notions of rugged individualism. Our culture champions the independent spirit of the explorer, the cowboy, the pioneer, and the entrepreneur. So, it makes sense that in the religious realm, American culture would also emphasize the individual’s connection to God. Some biblical characters appear to fit this pattern of “me and God.” Think of Moses facing down the power of Egypt, or David defying the might of Goliath and the Philistine army. Daniel stands his ground repeatedly while exiled in Babylon, and eventually gets thrown to the lions as a result. Each of these stories fits our cultural narrative of a heroic individual whose faith compels him to defy both the odds and popular opinion. But a closer inspection of Scripture may reveal the “me and God” framework is one we’ve imposed on the text rather than one we’ve learned from the text.A closer look at Daniel’s faith, for example, reveals an important challenge to our assumptions about having a “personal relationship” with God. Daniel is a very unusual character in the Bible. He is one of the very few heroes with a blemish-free record. Nearly every Old Testament figure (Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, etc.) failed in a significant way or sinned dramatically against God. But not Daniel. I’m not saying Daniel never sinned, only that it’s never recorded in Scripture. He seems to epitomize the rugged, righteous, individual faith our culture esteems. That’s why his prayer, recorded in Daniel 9, is so remarkable. Notice the pronouns he uses: “O Lord, the great and awesome God…wehave sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled…wehave not listened…to us belongs open shame…because we have sinned against you….”.Daniel’s prayer is accurate—God’s people were guilty of sin, but there is no evidence that Daniel himself ever participated in their wickedness. So, why does he include himself in their guilt? It’s because Daniel recognized a facet of relating to God that we often overlook. While we have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” we also have a collective relationship with him. It’s not just “me and God,” it’s also “us and God.” Belonging to Christ also means belonging to his people. Sharing in his glory also means sharing in their guilt. Calling God our Father also means calling those within the church our sisters and brothers. The testimony of the Bible is clear that Jesus is not merely reconciling separate individuals but a people to God. DAILY SCRIPTURE DANIEL 9:4-8 1 CORINTHIANS 12:14-16 WEEKLY PRAYER. From William Laud (1573 – 1645) Most gracious Father, we most humbly beseech you for your holy church. Fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in need, furnish it; where it is divided and torn apart, make up its breaches, O holy One of Israel. Amen. |
