The Spiritual Work of Gratitude
To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections- that requires hard spiritual work.
Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.
Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.
—Henri J. M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
It’s easy to be thankful when life is good—when prayers are answered, doors open, and joy comes easily. But true gratitude, as Henri Nouwen reminds us, digs deeper. It doesn’t ignore sorrow or pretend failure didn’t happen. It learns to say “thank you” for the whole story—the laughter and the loss, the blessings and the bruises. That kind of gratitude takes spiritual courage, because it invites us to trust that even our pain has a place in God’s redemptive plan.
When we stop dividing our lives into “what I wish happened” and “what I’m glad happened,” we begin to live more fully. The present moment, with all its complexity, is shaped by every step we’ve taken—and God has been in them all. We may not yet understand how, but we can choose to believe that nothing is wasted in His hands. Gratitude doesn’t erase the hard parts—it redeems them. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics