Native American Heritage Month – Part II
Scripture — Psalm 136: 7, 13 (First Nations Version)
“Give thanks to the one who placed the great lights in the sky. His faithful and true love lasts beyond the end of all days… Give thanks to the one who split the Red Sea apart. His faithful and true love lasts beyond the end of all days.”
Focus
As we slowly walk through this psalm of thanksgiving, I notice that the exilic community praises God for the seemingly small things as well as the great acts of deliverance experienced in the Biblical memory of the Hebrew people. I see gratitude as being gritty in nature because it does not mean we are all smiles and all cheerful at all times. But in the grit of the sandy gusts of wind in the wilderness, we can pause and gather the graces.
Devotion
Yesterday, I wrote about the gift of reading the First Nations Version of Psalm 136. Today I would like to lean into the cadence of gratitude in this psalm as we posture ourselves in this month of thanks-living.
Dr. Christine Pohl in _Living into Community _is one of my favorite practitioners speaking on the practices that build community and practices that break down community. Her research discovered that expressing gratitude is one of the practices that sustain a vibrant community. She posits that the opposite is also true, that ingratitude is the “incapacity to appreciate small gifts and the tendency to trample on fragile expressions of beauty and goodness.” Additionally, she quotes Karl Barth: “Grace and gratitude belong together, grace evokes gratitude like the voice evokes an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder follows lightning.”
As we slowly walk through this psalm of thanksgiving, I notice that the exilic community praises God for the seemingly small things as well as the great acts of deliverance experienced in the biblical memory of the Hebrew people. I see gratitude as being gritty in nature because it does not mean we are all smiles and all cheerful at all times. But in the grit of the sandy gusts of wind in the wilderness, we can pause and gather the graces.
Gratitude begins with slowing down and paying attention. I invite you to lean into the practice of thanksgiving this month and to write a long psalm of thanksgiving.
Reflect
What are you thankful for? What small and fragile gifts are all around?
Act
Pause at bedtime in a brief examen of thanksgiving and ask yourself the above question again. Write down what you are thankful for in the day—as much as you can write in just ONE minute.
Pray
God of grace, we slow down and give you thanks for the butterfly and the bird, the dew on the grass, the dust on our furniture. We give thanks for the daily bread and the butter. We give thanks for the stranger who smiled, the child’s laughter, and the last gallon of gas in our car. We give thanks for the breath of a friend. We give thanks that you call us friends. Amén.
Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Beyond Thanksgiving.