A Season for Gratitude and Joy

Introduction

For those of us who live in the United States, a central feature of November is the celebration of Thanksgiving. On the fourth Thursday of the month, Americans observe a national holiday focused on giving thanks to God. Well, okay, also a break from work, eating turkey, watching football, and gathering with loved ones. But in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Thanksgiving in which he wrote:

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

We in the U.S. have accepted Lincoln’s invitation and will once again celebrate Thanksgiving Day later this month. Though there is one official Thanksgiving Day, I have come to think of November as a season for gratitude.

The following month, December, is a season for joy. Yes, in this season we enjoy the fleeting happiness of parties, presents, and poinsettias. But Christians experience the deeper and lasting joy associated with the nativity of Jesus. The third Sunday of Advent is known as “Joy Sunday,” a time when we look forward to the birth of the Savior. Then, on Christmas, we sing “Joy to the world; the Lord is come!” Joy is paramount in this season.

Gratitude as the Foundation for Joy

For more than six decades, I have loved the last two months of the year, with their seasons for thanksgiving and joy. Until recently, I never gave much thought to the relationship between these seasons and the emotions they arouse. But, as I was doing research in support of the De Pree Center’s quarterly focus on joy, I discovered a couple of fascinating articles exploring the relationship between thanksgiving and joy. It seems there is a connection between November and December that I had not considered before.

Both articles were co-written by a scholar I’ve come to respect and appreciate for his outstanding research. Dr. Robert Emmons is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis. He is arguably the world’s premier expert on the psychology of gratitude. His academic work significantly informed my third third work years before I learned that Emmons is also a faithful Christian. (He gave a series of fascinating lectures on gratitude as Fuller Seminary’s 2022 Integration Symposium.)

While doing my research, I came upon an article co-written by Robert Emmons and Marc Afshar called “Gratitude as the Foundation for Joy.” This article, though written for the Journal of Youth and Theology, has much to say that is relevant to all times of life, including the third third. The article’s abstract begins:

Joy and gratitude are two of the deepest touch points of human existence. Joy is a multifaceted concept that is best thought of as an emotion-virtue composed of delight in that which is ultimately good. Gratitude is an affirmation of the good and a recognition of where that good is sourced. As self-transcendent, positive emotion dispositions at the heart of many religious and spiritual traditions, these qualities are key components of the flourishing life (p. 5).

Later, Emmons and Afshar write,

Is there a connection between living gratefully and experiencing joy? The evidence appears unequivocal. Gratitude is foundational for joy. Grateful people appreciate the good in their lives and view life through a lens of giftedness. This way of thinking and seeing should enhance joy because one has to first be able to find and recognize the good and then incorporate and absorb this good before they can experience joy.

Emmons and Afshar mention the central role of “the good” in the experience of joy. Similarly, my Fuller colleagues Pamela Ebstyne King and Frederic Defoy affirm that joy is “an emotional response to something good.” (They also agree with Emmons and Afshar that joy is more than an emotion. It is also a virtue.) We might feel happy over relatively minor goods, like eating a tasty meal or watching a funny movie. But joy goes deeper and lasts longer as a response to moral, relational, and spiritual goodness.

How are thankfulness and joy connected? Emmons and Afshar suggest that gratitude amplifies or magnifies that which is good in our lives, thus augmenting our joy. They explain:

Just as an amplifier increases the volume of sound coming into a microphone, gratitude “turns up the volume” of the good in one’s life. Just as a magnifying glass enlarges the text it is focused on, so gratitude enlarges the good that it is focused on. . . . Stated differently, gratitude increases the signal strength of what and who is good in one’s life.

So, if being thankful turns up the volume on what is good in our lives, then it will also increase our experience of joy. Thus, as the title of the article by Emmons and Afshar proclaims, gratitude is “the foundation for joy.”

And Joy Leads to Gratitude

If we reflect upon our personal experience, we have no doubt experienced the emotional movement from gratitude to joy. When something good happens in our lives, we are thankful. If we pay attention to our thankfulness, it can blossom into joy.

We experience this kind of joy each year during our celebrations of Advent and Christmas. Our deep gladness is a response to the extravagant goodness of God, who was born in a stable for the sake of our salvation. As the beloved carol proclaims, the world has joy because “the Lord is come.”

But it turns out that the road between gratitude and joy isn’t a one-way street. In 2017, Philip C. Watkins, along with his colleagues from Eastern Washington University and Robert Emmons of U.C. Davis, published an article called “Joy is a distinct positive emotion: Assessment of joy and relationship to gratitude and well-being.” Based on three studies they did related to joy and gratitude, Watkins and his team found that “gratitude is important for experiences of joy” (p. 12). Yet they also found that joy can lead to gratitude:

Not only does gratitude promote joy, in Study 3 we found that over time dispositional joy predicted enhanced gratitude. This suggests an intriguing upward spiral between gratitude and joy: as one cultivates the disposition for gratitude, this increases the frequency of experiences of joy, which in turn should foster the disposition of joy, thus increasing gratitude (p. 13).

In more popular language, the scholars found that “gratitude promotes joy and joy promotes gratitude” (p. 14). Plus, both joy and gratitude contribute substantially to “subjective well-being.” They help us to flourish.

Gratitude and Joy in Scripture

We find ample evidence in Scripture for the interrelationship of gratitude and joy. Consider, for example, the following Bible verses:

Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name (Ps 97:12).

Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
and tell of his deeds with songs of joy (Ps 107:22).

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? (1 Thes 3:9).

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thes 5:16).

In the Bible, sometimes our expressions of thanksgiving lead us to expressions of joy (Ps 107:22). At other times, we move in the other direction (Ps 97:12). What we see in Scripture is reinforced by psychological research. Watkins and his research partners write:

Thus, in the current studies we investigated the relationship of joy to a number of spiritual qualities. Foremost among these qualities was gratitude to God (Scheibe, Watkins, & Uhder, 2017). For religious people, gratitude to God may be particularly important to their experience of joy. Likewise, a disposition for joy may be important for enhancing one’s gratitude for God (p. 4).

New Perspectives and Practices for a Thankful, Joyful Holiday Season

In light of what I’ve learned from recent psychological studies and a fresh look at Scripture, I see more clearly the close connection between gratitude and joy. Thus, I’m learning to think of November and December, not as two distinct holiday seasons, but rather as one extended, multifaceted season. Thankfulness in November not only helps us feel joy related to many good gifts, but also prepares our hearts for the distinctive joy of Advent and Christmas. Then, as we rejoice in December over the birth of our Savior, our joy spills over into gratitude.

During the season of Thanksgiving, we often sing the hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth,” with its refrain, “Christ, our Lord, to you we raise, this, our hymn of grateful praise.” Yet the final verse of this hymn points ahead to our joyous Christmas celebration of the gift of Christ to the world:

For yourself, best gift divine,
to the world so freely given,
agent of God’s grand design;
peace on earth and joy in heaven.

The Christmas carol, “O Holy Night,” also makes a strong connection between the gratitude and joy in its third verse:

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
and in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

There you have it! “Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we.”

Growing in Gratitude and Joy in the Holiday Season

Many of us will naturally feel gratitude and joy in the next two months as we participate in experiences related to Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas. You might almost say it comes with the territory.

Yet, there are things we can do to enhance our gratitude and deepen our joy. Perhaps you have personal, family, or church practices that serve you well in this regard. I want to share one of my own practices that helps me to be grateful and joyful, and also one classic Christian practice that has helped millions of people grow in gratitude and joy.

Journaling a Year’s Worth of Thanks

About 20 years ago, it occurred to me that my celebration of Thanksgiving was sometimes inadequately thankful. So, I tried an experiment. Getting up extra early on Thanksgiving morning, I grabbed a mug of coffee and sat quietly at a table with my journal in front of me. I asked the Lord to help me do something I had never done before, namely, to make a list of all things I was grateful for in the last year.

I began with obvious things, like salvation in Christ, God’s gracious forgiveness, the gifts of my wife and children, and so forth. Before long, my list was substantial. Then I started thinking in categories, like the people in my life or the events of the past year. Then I remembered people from my past, authors who had influenced me, etc.

I kept on writing for at least an hour. As I did, I often thought, “I have never before thanked God for this. It’s about time!” Sometimes I found myself unexpectedly weeping with gratitude as I remembered how much someone had meant to me. By the end of my list-making time, I felt both joyful and exhausted. I was so glad for what I had experienced and resolved to do it every year.

Now, let me say that for some of you, early on Thanksgiving Day is not the ideal time for this exercise. Perhaps you need to focus on preparing dinner. Or maybe you really need some extra sleep. So, you certainly don’t have to imitate my timing. But I would encourage you to find an hour somewhere around Thanksgiving Day to record your yearly gratitude. I promise it will make a big difference in your life, including your joyfulness.

Self-Examination (using the Examen)

I would also suggest that you engage in a time of self-examination, using what is traditionally called the Examen. This is something you might choose to do more than once during the holiday season. Many Christians practice the Examen daily, often at the end of the day.

Robert Emmons and Marc Afshar conclude their article “Gratitude as the Foundation for Joy” with a section entitled “Building Joy Through Gratitude Practices.” The first practice they commend is “Self-examination,” writing:

Find ways to practice gratitude intentionally through both private activities and public expressions. Journaling, prayer, fasting, worship – all these become ways that we can practice thankfulness. Start with journaling. In the tradition founded by St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, the examination of conscience (the Examen) is a specific method employed to assist in acquisition of one particular virtue or in the elimination of one particular vice. As such, it is very useful for anyone who wants to grow in gratitude (p. 13).

The Examen, according to Afshar and Emmons, has five steps:

a. [Recognize] God’s Presence.
b. Thanksgiving: Spend a moment looking over your day with gratitude for this day’s gifts. Be specific and let particular pleasures come to mind. Recall the morning dew, the smell of freshly cut grass, a strength you discovered you had. Give thanks for favors and blessings receive.
c. Self-knowledge.
d. Now review your day.
e. Communicate with God (pp. 13-4).

If you’d like to learn more about the Examen, you can check out “Gratitude as the Foundation for Joy,” or short piece on the De Pree Center website.

Conclusion

I close this article with a simple wish prayer. In this holiday season, may you grow in gratitude and joy as you pay attention to the good gifts of God, most of all, the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.