Power of gratitude

Fear won’t move us forward

When we are giving thanks, when we are showing gratitude, that is when we have power. And here’s why.

When you are truly gracious, when your mind is set upon grace and gratitude, there is one thing you cannot have, and that is fear.

Fear will sap your power faster than anything else. It creates doubt and distrust and insecurity. In this age of great connectivity, you can find someone every hour of every day willing to scare you about one thing or another.

But we are not born to know fear. Much like hatred, it is not natural, and it must be learned. And while some level of fear is healthy for survival, it can be far too easy to let it overwhelm us. To let it paralyze us. To keep us from realizing our true spirit.

As Paul says in the first chapter of his second letter to Timothy: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

And it is that power and that love that I want to emphasize to you today. Each of these, alone, cannot always get us where we need to be.

While St. Paul’s letter eloquently states the natural presence of both love and power in our spirits, there is another quotation about these virtues that I refer to far more often.

The quote is from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It speaks to the importance of balancing love and power, and reads as such:

“One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love.

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

Alone, power can be unchecked and dangerous. Alone, love can sustain us, but may not advance us. However, when love is power’s guiding star, we can find ourselves in a more just and fulfilling world.

This is not always how the world works. For years, I have talked of battling the cynicism that permeates our society. We see example after example of power guided not by love, but by selfish motive or by malice. This breeds discontent, distrust, and again, fear.

It creates suspicion of the very institutions we establish to govern ourselves and to carry out justice. There are those who would fan those flames and encourage anger and entrenchment over compassion and compromise.

But history has shown time and again that fear, anger and conflict will never move us forward. And why would they? These are not qualities imbued within our spirit. This is why so many others throughout history implore us to realize that we carry within us the love and power that lead to a more just world.

And for every hateful pronouncement or wave of fear we see in our world, we see people reaching out to each other in times of need, in times of distress, and joining together in times of joy. That’s where we need to focus our energies. The more good we do for one another, the more we infuse power with love.

That’s the balance St. Paul reminds us is within us, and the path to justice that Dr. King preached we could find.

And it is that hope, and that spirit, which makes me thankful today. My thanksgiving is for the truth and the love that still remain inside of us, and the power they give each of us to make this world a better place for each other, and to defeat fear and malice.

I hope you’ll share that power of gratitude with me—not just on this holiday, but throughout the year and throughout our lives.