Joyful Recognition, All Is Gift: Four Perspectives on Gratitude in 2020 / Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Sarah Schnitker, Jessica Hooten Wilson, Miroslav Volf

For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

Defining gratitude as joyful recognition, the courage to be grateful, comparing gratitude for self-help vs gratitude in prayer, resilience, seeing all as gift and everything as grace. Featuring: Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Sarah Schnitker, Jessica Hooten Wilson, and Miroslav Volf.

Show Notes

• 1:07 - Miroslav Volf
• Our gratitude for you listeners!
• Sometimes complaint comes easier than gratitude, requiring the courage to be grateful.
• Misconceptions about gratitude: repayment of debt, obligation to the giver, a strategy for happiness or subjective well-being.
• Miroslav’s view of gratitude: Joyful recognition
• Gratitude is "joy over the giver, joy over the gift, joy over having received the gift and having been set into relation to the giver marked by freedom.”
• 6:45 - Stacey Floyd-Thomas
• Slow down and focus on what matters most
• Despite what may seem grim in this moment, redeem now as a holy time.
• Gratitude as not merely a disposition but an essential duty of defiance and determination that keeps us bound to our first duty: to care for our neighbors as our very best selves.
• Maya Angelou: “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you say your nightly prayer, and let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
• 10:18 - Sarah Schnitker
• Praying gratitude together as more than self-help
• The difference between gratitude as prayer and gratitude as a tool for feeling happier
• 14:30 - Jessica Hooten Wilson
• “Thank you for the fleas.” Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place
• 1 Thessalonians: “Give thanks in all circumstances."
• "All is gift. Even sufferings of many kinds are gifts if we offer them up and allow God to redeem them."
• Cultivate a gracious imagination that sees all as grace

A recent review from one of our listeners:

"So much is happening and our society has rules where we often check our deepest meaning systems at the door. This works until a year like this year when we need to draw on much deeper resources, and we want a way to connect as a community. This group seems committed to softening those isolating norms, and showing us all what that could look like to do so with love and respect." (Donnied48, 10/5/2020, via Apple Podcasts)