Sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, the Greater Good Science Center received the grant of 4,000,000 dollars, and spent five years researching the science of gratitude. The project’s name was “Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude”. At the end of the research, they published the book, “Gratitude project” , weaving the essence of what they have learned. The book explains one of the reasons that gets in the way of giving gratitude even after its numerous benefits are realized.
“Gratitude simply runs up against some deeply ingrained psychological tendencies. One is the self-serving bias. This means that when good things happen to us, we say it’s because of something we did, but when bad things happen, we blame other people or circumstances. We like to think that we are our own creators and that our lives are ours to do with as we please. We take things for granted. We assume that we are totally responsible for all the good that comes our way.”
I was surprised when I read the above passage from the book. This book is not a Chrisitian literature. However, it brings out clearly the meaning of sinfulness written in the Bible and explains how such sinful nature is preventing us from giving thanks. It says that illusions like ‘I am the center of the universe’, and ‘I am my own creator’ block our ways to gratitude.
People without gratitude make their friends miserable, and they eventually distress themselves, their hearts and their lives as well. It is similar to how sin ruins our relationships, our hearts and our lives. It was interesting to note how the sinfulness and gratitude were connected this way. Also being a Christian and being a person of gratitude are deeply correlated as well; being grateful to the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the way to become a Christian. Likewise, Heaven only makes sense to a person of gratitude. So now you can see how the overcoming of your sinfulness and being a person of gratitude are closely correlated. Thus, once you realize that being ungrateful is the result of your sinful nature, you should first repent your sin of ingratitude. I think that just like we sympathize with the children who do not possess gratefulness, God, our father, is also looking at us, the ungrateful, with sympathetic eyes.
Following the shepherd…
Pastor Jiwon Choi