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With Gratefulness

I read an interesting little essay by Dana Greene about a new book out by the Benedictine monk, David Steindl-Rast.  I have never met this monk, but I know about him.  I have read some of his stuff and watched him on YouTube videos.  His new book, i am through you so i (with small letters in deference to e.e. cummings), is autobiographical in nature.  It is not a book I have read, but want to do so.  I know this monk is pretty old (b 1926).  He was born in Vienna, so has a fairly heavy accent even after these years in the USA.
   
Greene describes things I already know about Steindl-Rast.  He has studied Buddhism seriously and other non-Christian traditions.  He is probably best known for his focus on the theme of gratitude.  That theme is a rather “in thing” these days.  But it is a great theme, so I am fine with its popular status. I always liked his focus on this theme as a way to happiness.  As I see it, happiness is normally a by-product of something else.  It is hard to “be happy” as a matter of intent.  It usually comes as a result of being or doing something else. 
   
The last line in Greene’s small essay was a wonderful line and one that I share and then develop some reflective comments on it.  She observes, “His belief is that if one lives in the now, trusts life itself and says yes to it, then one will live with gratefulness, and the self and the community will become whole. Such gratefulness will confirm as well the claim of Jesus: ‘I am making all things new.’”  As I read this line, Steindl-Rast says there are three things we can do in order to experience and live with gratefulness.  Let’s look at each one of these three.
   
The first injunctive offered by the Benedictine monk is to live in the now.  Part of me wants to laugh and say, “check…done.”  But that’s obviously so shallow as, indeed, to be laughable.  Living in the now is simple.  It is just not easy!  All I need to do is watch and talk to current students.  They are so wrapped up in living for the future.  They are in college to get a degree to get a good job so they will be happy.  That sounds so simple.  Sometimes it works, but not too often.
   
Or we can go to a nursing home and see the other end of the spectrum.  People there are often sick, sad or stuck in the past.  There is nothing in their “now” they want.  Some of them simply want out of their “now.”  They are not grateful nor happy.  I understand their plight and want to prepare to be somehow different if I wind up in their place.  Finally, I expect that many of us somewhere between the college student and the nursing home people are not much better.  Living in the now is not easy.
   
It means being aware.  It means paying attention.  It means seeing that we are gifted and we are graced.  We come to see the little things in our lives that cause us to be grateful.  We can only be grateful for what is in the moment.  I have given quite a bit of focus to contemplative living in order that I might cultivate the way of life that is aware and able to live in my “now.”  This allows me to say thanks for what is.  To say thanks is the concrete way of gratitude.
   
The second piece of advice offered by Steindl-Rast is to trust life.  Again, it is tempting to laugh.  But so many people I know---and too often, even I---do not trust life.  Some of us try to avoid trusting by controlling things and people.  That has often been my preferred way!  If I can control, then I don’t have to trust.  But controllers can never be grateful.  They might be relieved.  They might even worry about losing control.  Controllers are actually fear-based.  But most of us would never admit that. 
   
Trusting life is easier, it seems to me, if I have faith in God and God’s ultimate love and desire for me and my well-being.  It does not mean hard things will never come my way.  But it does mean I can trust the process---trust that life will ultimately bring me to a good place.  And I can be grateful if I am not in control and don’t have to control.
   
Steindl-Rast’s last piece of advice is already implicated in what I have shared.  We need to be able to say “yes” to life.  We can learn to accept and appreciate what comes to us.   This does not mean we become passive.  To the contrary!  God wants us to be co-creators of this world heading toward the kingdom.  Theologically, I go so far as to say we are co-creators with God in God’s kingdom coming.  I am confident this is what Jesus had in mind when he called disciples and gave them charisms---gifts---for ministry. 
   
I appreciate Greene putting me on to Steindl-Rast’s latest book.  I appreciate how he has made sense out of life.  He has done it in such a way that he can be grateful.  And in gratitude comes the resulting happiness.  And that gets linked to the kingdom that is coming.  This is what I want from life---my own and for everyone else in this world.  I hope all seven billion of us living creatures figure it out and become kingdom workers.
   
It will come with a great deal of gratitude.

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