Finding Pleasure in Gratitude

I woke this morning with the word pleasure on my mind. I had just dreamed that I was in a lecture hall listening to a tall, thin man speak. In the dream I seem to know him as the son of Billy Graham. His lecture was quite scholarly, so of course, I don't remember a thing. At the end of the lecture he asked for questions. I replied that I had two. I ask how his father was doing, to which he never really responded, and I asked about his personal happiness.  To that, he responded that he sought pleasure. He added that pleasure is a gift from God, and even shows up in the Bible. That is worth pondering. Certainly in some of the psalms and in the Song of Songs there is great delight and pleasure expressed. In Genesis, we read of God declaring creation as good, and in Proverbs 8 we read of Wisdom's delight in creation as well.     

   

Before one of my recent worship services, I was talking to one of the residents about memory.  She expressed concern that she had lost track of a day and had missed an appointment. She felt badly about that.  "I think I need to pull out my paper calendar every evening and mark through the day. I need to bring the day to a close before beginning another one." 

  

As we talked about her idea, I found meaning in it.  I added that there is a spiritual practice called the examen where at the end of the day one takes time for reflection on the day. We note where we had experienced a sense of God's presence, where we might have been too distracted or self-absorbed to remember to seek God's blessing and guidance, or where we were convinced that God was missing entirely.  We then surrender the day back to God, and rest. In the book Sleeping with Bread,authors Dennis, Sheila, and Matthew Linn write about their experiences of their examen practices that center on two questions:  

 

For what moment today am I most grateful? 

For what moment today am I least grateful?    

 

I am grateful for my conversation with Lola. I am grateful for the reminder that without gratitude, we cannot truly experience pleasure, no matter how passionately we pursue it. I am grateful for the opportunity to ponder the morning word, and I am grateful to be reconnected with Sleeping with Bread. It is a deceptively simple book, and I recommend it. I am also grateful for this time in my ministry and my life. I am learning to find the grace in the growing knowledge that those I once called elders, I now simply know as friends.   

 

I am grateful for all of you.  

 

    

The Inner History of a Day (excerpt) 

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place

Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens, 

Transforming our broken fragments 

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us. 

  

Somewhere in us a dignity presides

That is more gracious that the smallness 

That fuels us with fear and force, 

A dignity that trusts the form a day takes. 

 

So at the end of this day, we give thanks 

For being betrothed to the unknown

And for the secret work 

Through which the mind of the day

And the wisdom of the soul become one. 

 

John O'Donohue (from for lovers of god everywhere by roger housden)