Europe has been teaching us that during this 2026 FIFA World Cup. TikTok and other social media sites are filled with visitors extolling many of the things we have grown to take for granted.
Re-reading both The Call and my old devotional series from 2014 is a reminder that gratitude seems to show up everywhere. It appears in different forms and under different names, but it keeps resurfacing. The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that gratitude may be one of the most important spiritual disciplines in the Christian life.
When I was growing up, we did not have a great deal, but we had enough. Every now and then my dad would take us out to eat, and my grandmother had a remarkable ability to stretch a coupon into what felt like a feast. I still remember those Sunday trips to Arby's. Looking back, the sandwich probably wasn't all that special, but that isn't what I remember. What I remember is being thankful for it.
Somewhere along the way I discovered that gratitude has very little to do with the size of the gift and a great deal to do with the condition of the heart receiving it.
Years later, when I was living in Nashville, I encountered students who had already seen far more of the world than I had at their age. They had traveled internationally, experienced luxury, and possessed opportunities that would have been unimaginable to me as a teenager. What struck me was not what they had. It was how unimpressed they seemed by everything.
That experience taught me something. The opposite of gratitude is not poverty.... it is entitlement.
A person can have very little and be deeply grateful. A person can have almost everything and still believe they deserve more.
That is why Guinness connects gratitude so closely to calling. He writes:
"Calling is a reminder for followers of Christ that nothing in life should be taken for granted; everything in life must be received in gratitude."
Even the ordinary things that we rarely stop to notice.
One of the observations Guinness makes is that people who lose gratitude eventually lose perspective. What began as wonder slowly becomes expectation. What was once received as a gift is now viewed as an entitlement.
That may be one of the oldest temptations in the human experience.
In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve stood in a garden overflowing with gifts, yet the serpent succeeded by directing their attention to the one thing they did not possess. Their eyes moved from abundance to absence.
Gratitude teaches us to pay attention to what is already present.
I think that is one reason gratitude brings peace. It slows the restless search for more and allows us to enjoy what God has already provided.
As I work through this June Tune-Up, I find myself wondering whether gratitude is less an emotion and more a way of seeing. Two people can look at the same life and arrive at entirely different conclusions. One sees limitations. The other sees blessings.
It is sad to me how many people will purposely choose to not celebrate the 250 anniversary of the American experiment. Is America perfect? NO Am I thankful to be here? YES I AM!
I'm grateful. Could it be that those who come from a perspective of shame for this great nation has a lot to do with anger that stems from what they don't have instead of the peace of contentment in God and the simple, meaningful things in life?
Perhaps that is why Paul repeatedly gives thanks, even while writing from prison. His gratitude was not dependent on circumstances. It was rooted in the goodness of God.
A way of remembering that every good and perfect gift ultimately comes from Him.
In a world where we have divided people into 'oppressors' and 'oppressed'- and the anger it engenders - a route out is disciplining ourselves to find gratitude - as well as recognizing all humans as made in the image of God.
And if Guinness is right, then perhaps one of the healthiest habits we can develop is learning to let all our thinks become thanks.
Song Link: Attitude of Gratitude
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