Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] Speaker A: We're in the mode of gratitude, right? And having done in my career many, many messages on the incredibly underrated power of gratitude, I once again remain obligated to remind everyone at this time of year of its necessity. And yes, I am aware that Thanksgiving is a predominantly American celebration. I'm very blessed to recognize that Thanksgiving messages do not apply across the board to the Shalom Macon community because there are countries all over the place that are worshiping with us. And so American Thanksgiving is not exactly a thing. However, while what we did on Thursday is an American unique component, a brief survey of the Internet reveals just how unoriginal the idea of a Thanksgiving holiday is.
Or phrased more positively, just how deep the need is within us to express our gratitude that the thing in our souls. Listen. Canada. Do you know what Canada celebrates instead of Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving.
That's what they call it.
Germany.
Ernst.
Japan. Incorrect.
South Korea. Chusuk. China. Mid Autumn Festival. India Pangu, Ghana Homowo, Israel.
Sukkot. A festival of Thanksgiving and celebration. Liberia. Thanksgiving. Malaysia Komatan, Vietnam Tet Trong 2. Poland. Dojinki, United Kingdom Harvest Festival. Thailand Loy Katong, Brazil. Dia de A Sonde. Gracias. Zimbabwe Harvest Festival. Imbinde, Philippines. Panghias. Indonesia. Gimbak, Guinea. Scotland. Lammas Day. You want me to go on?
That's all I got.
And that took a lot of work. In short, the list of the recognition humanity gives to God, Creator, Universe, Earth, whatever the source. And that's actually probably the best word for this because source. Clearly all those cultures don't acknowledge the same creator. But we all have within us the knowledge that we should be grateful for our lives. And that actually speaks to the existence of the divine spark that is within all of us. That God, God, the creator of the universe, really did create and does exist as part of us, our souls yearning to thank Him. That's pretty incredible.
In America, yeah. Many of us gather around the table packed with more food than we should ever consider consuming.
With families, some of whom we're thankful that we only see one day a year.
And many, many homes thank God or their version of it for our blessing of him, for the opportunity, blessings to be together. Even with Uncle Eustace that you're glad you only see once a year.
Why didn't that hit? That was a good joke.
Not one sound. I am really off today. Let me get back on track. It raises a question though.
If having gone through that long list of cultural cross cultural universal days of gratitude worldwide, why I must ask, is it so hard to Find the same level of excitement about our lives on all the rest of the days and you can say, well, it's not. I'm thankful all the time. That's not true. A lot of people are not. There may be exceptions to that. But why is that difficult? I can't answer the question precisely. But today I hope to bring a little encouragement to this group to reap the daily reward of what we refer to in Hebrew as Hakarat Hatov.
Sounds better in English. It's easier to remember seeing the good, recognize the good, acknowledge the good. Hakarat hatov.
That is quite simply to say, be grateful, seek out gratitude. Sometimes that's what it takes, that you seek it out. That in turn you would internalize it and remain that way.
That's more what it means. I've been traveling a bit. Last week I had. Was it last week? No, it was. When? Sometime recently I was in Marshfield, Missouri for the Firstfruits of Zion, Planning and strategy, annual meetings. Hanging out with that group of guys and all the people at First Fruits who make so many things possible for so many people. It's an incredible team of people. Really grateful to do that and, you know, sensing the blessing there. Thursday morning at 6am Well, 4am I flew home to Macon from there to do surgery with my dad on Thursday. And the next morning at 6am Got on another flight to San Diego to go to the Society for Biblical Literature annual worldwide conference, the SBL, the Society for Biblical Literature, founded in 1880. It's all about the academic study of the Bible, Theology, related literature, scholars, students, clergy, various fields, theology, archeology, linguistics, history, literary studies. It's held in conjunction with something even bigger that's called the American Academy of Religion. So you have the SBL AAR conference. I remember when I was growing up, my dad would attend the AAO meetings, which was the American Academy of Ophthalmology. And I thought, wow, that's cool. He's got his own academy. Then I went here and realized I have an academy, the aar. Wow, cool. So it's the best, brightest, smartest biblical scholar, people from all around the world. And here's what I saw at first glance when I got there, which speaks to our message today. What I experienced as I surveyed the lecture offerings. The catalog was like this thick, okay. Of everything that was being offered. There may be 500 lectures, conservatively over four days.
I surveyed them and I looked over all of these and you know what I realized?
Very few of them meant anything at all to me.
And I read the title of so many of the lectures in the SBL catalog and I thought, seriously, people spend their time, their lives learning about this, writing about the Bible and animal studies, meals in the Old Testament, the Vulgate and the Latin Bible, islands, islanders and the Scriptures. And I thought, hmm, maybe I'm in the wrong academy.
Maybe I actually don't belong here. This is not my cup of tea.
But I was reminded there of an idea by Rebbe Nachman. Rebbe Nachman was a Brez lover. He was a great sage in later Judaism. And he wrote in one of his most famous writings, therefore, wherever the mind is focused, that is where man's entire being is.
His students took that and simplified it into something that's very memorable. You are wherever your thoughts are.
Make sure your thoughts are where you want to be.
A person's perspective can elevate or diminish their experience.
And so at some point I made a mental shift.
And it started when I met this guy that is 90 something year old, William Campbell. No one knows William Campbell, but you do know William Campbell. This is William Campbell's Romans commentary.
Decades of his life put into the pages of this book. It has been very, very influential in my series on Romans and getting to meet him and talk about it, something began to shift. Then I met this guy who didn't actually want to be shorter than me, so he stood on the chair, that is Roman scholar Mark Nanos who's written reading Romans within Judaism, reading Paul within Judaism, the mystery of Romans. Then I met this guy who is, his name is Runar Thorsteinson, he's an Icelandic scholar. His groundbreaking commentary on Romans 2 and the so called Jew. I had a fantastic, amazing conversation with him. Then I met Paula Fredrickson. I don't have a picture, but Paula is one of the most influential Roman scholars in all of the world. I had lunch with Nanos talking over Romans and just getting to learn. And I saw and I felt and I could relate to their passion. And I attended all these lectures on Paul within Judaism and Christian history and the so called parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity and lectures from very influential Jewish scholars and on and on and on. And I then felt so privileged to be there, to be learning among this group of people who had dedicated their lives, decades of their lives to sharing this knowledge with other people learning it. And I experienced a deep sense of gratitude, even if a lecture was supremely boring. And there were some of those.
But I could see something different. But then something more important happened as my Thoughts began to shift away from a lack of gratitude into an awareness of gratitude. As I walked through the convention center and I was walking down halls and looking at the titles on the lectures that were taking place in there. And I saw all of the very diverse people in the crowds, and I mean diverse. And I walked through the book exhibition hall and I experienced all that was going on around me. I had this total like just perspective shift. And I saw and felt in there from so many of the people, the attendees and the presenters alike. I had such a deep sense of gratitude for their efforts, even if I had no connection to what they do. As a matter of fact, I had with many of them a sense of misalignment. Because I don't support what they do, I don't agree with what they do. And yet when I looked at these people, I see thousands of people who are passionate about finding some truth in the universe and seeking out relationship and drawing closer. And I was actually amazed at one point as I considered all of the faiths that were represented there. And there were a lot of them, but within all of us is this hunger, this yearning to connect to something so much bigger and beyond ourselves.
And all that in a very short amount of time. Because you are where your thoughts take you. Be sure you know where you want them to take you.
That's so much the picture of life.
God created every unique soul in that place with a unique purpose. And I was forced at least to pause in appreciation. Not just for the people I had met, or not for just what was interesting to me, but to appreciate the talents and the diversity. And that was a major shift from, wow, this is a huge waste of time. And I'm sorry I did this. These people are stupid and what they're Talking about is stupid. 2.
God created us with such uniqueness. And I'm privileged to be part of the experience.
Rebbe Nachman, you are wherever your thoughts are. Make sure your thoughts are where you want to be.
The power of perspective, it changes everything. And you know what? One day of intentional gratitude. Thanksgiving is great. I am thankful for it. I really am.
And all those holidays that I mentioned above, they're all great, giving thanks. But we have to. We have to develop the idea, the way of thinking that keeps you in awe of the world. Even when you don't like the world. You have to be aware, grateful for things that happen every day and to seek them out. That is an invaluable character trait that we as sons and daughters of God should above all possess and demonstrate to the world that we are grateful for the air we breathe and the opportunities we get to live and exist on this great planet that God created for us.
I know it's cliche, I know it's another thank you message, but you know what? You need it. I've taught it many, many times. But I did. I promised you a Romans connection. Okay, so here it is, literally a connection to a Roman, the philosopher king, Marcus Aurelius, who wrote this in his diary.
Just listen. I didn't put the quote up, but I want you to just think about this. When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself, the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly.
They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own. Not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in this ugliness.
No one can implicate me in that ugliness. And their ingratitude and their surliness and their meddling and their arrogance and their jealousy. The ugliness of evil. You know what? There's a lot of bad in the world. And you can choose to focus there or make sure your thoughts are where you want to be.
Have you ever noticed how your thoughts dictate emotions? Most people don't. And there's such an amazing thing that one day I'm going to teach you, and I have, but I'm going to teach it to you even more clearly about the difference between a feeling and an action and the space in between those two things and your thoughts. If you can't control what happens from thought to response, you are a prisoner in your own mind.
So many people cannot do that. Last Thursday, though, we were basically forced to discipline our thoughts toward gratitude. And so my call to action is, yep, I'm grateful for Thanksgiving, but let's get better at doing that every day because it changes your life. What if we could direct our thoughts to gratitude intentionally, to live with gratitude as a mindset, A discipline. Tim Keller, theologian, passed away recently. It's one thing to be grateful, it's another to give thanks. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do.
It is an action. Hakarat Hatov, to recognize the good. It's a wonderful concept, but we know, and our Jewish and Christian and Pagan teachers alike, Nachman, Keller, Aurelius. They teach that it's not enough to just literally see the good and take note of it. You can't just say, oh, that's nice, thank you. No, it's not just noticing, it's dwelling on it. Even when distractions or negativity threaten to overwhelm you. Marcus Aurelius says that thing when he wakes up, you know what? I'm going to meet some really bad people today.
It's just the way it is.
But they can't bring me into their ugliness.
Rabbi Nachman, redirecting your thoughts when they stray. Tim Keller emphasized the action taking gratitude. And together they, along with countless other wise people through the ages, they teach you one thing. Gratitude is not a feeling. Gratitude is a discipline.
It's a muscle that must be built. It is a discipline and ultimately it's a preemptive practice. It's an ongoing correction and it's a soul elevation. And speaking of elevation, I flew home from San Diego.
In moments like I had at the conference, I can stand up here all day and talk about gratitude. And the reason I'm so passionate about it is because I'm desperately working on applying it in my own life. Those moments are not that common for me where I can put my thoughts in a place where I really want them to be. I have to work at that. I am, I'm not a pessimist.
I just really like to look at things, you know, in a certain way. How was that? No, I am one who is often able to find the holes in anything and then discuss them, particularly with people who are very positive about them. That won't work. That's a bad idea. That's not good. It's just. I don't know, I don't know where I got it, but it takes a lot of work to not think that way.
If it comes natural to you, thank God.
But so anyway, fast forward. Flying home from California, I'm flying over. Kelly and I were flying over the mountains of New Mexico and I had another moment. The stewardess brings me a tray of food and a glass of wine. White wine. I don't like white wine. I like red wine. But she brings me this tray, okay?
Yuck.
Airplane food and cheap white wine, right? Who likes airplane food?
No, no, you are wherever your thoughts are. I am 35,000ft above the earth flying across the country in three and a half hours at 550 miles an hour. That's a miracle, right?
I'm eating mashed potatoes, talking to my wife while I drink wine, while a crew in the cockpit who spent their whole like decades learning to do this, to fly this metal tube through the sky that weighs 75 tons. Guns.
It's amazing.
And I'm looking out the window, breathing normal air, by the way, 35,000ft up in the air in this metal tube. All these people are shuttling me around and giving me wine. And I'm looking down at God's creation. Mountains and the earth up and down and clouds and sky and sun.
The next day, bit tired from the late night arrival from west coast to east coast time Tuesday. That Tuesday I assisted my dad in surgery. Had to do that. We used a laser beam that we shoot into people's eyeballs to change the contour of their cornea by thousands of microns so that they can get rid of a dependence that they've had all their lives on glasses and contacts.
Laser in the eyeball, is that miraculous?
It's pretty miraculous. And all the while it's a life changing event. My dad has done that for 25,000 people. And I've been along for the ride.
And he does it. I'm sitting there watching him effortlessly do this and lift the corneal surface off the eye and. Effortlessly. Yeah, effortlessly. You know why? 45 years of life and dedication and practice given to learning to do that and to change people's lives. That's amazing.
The alternative Man, I'm tired. I don't want to be here. Why do I have to go to work? I wish I didn't have to come to work. I'm tired. I got jet lagged and I came to the synagogue right after that. And I'm sitting here watching these craftsmen build these things and wire things and pour concrete and all this stuff. And I'm like, wow, I don't know how to do any of that. That's amazing what they're doing, what they're building, the giftings that God has given them. On the other hand, I could say, why isn't that happening faster? Look, there's a defect in the concrete right there. What's the matter with you guys?
The world is amazing if you look at it everywhere, everywhere.
And the people that make it, you know, you know people who are that way, right?
Nothing is good enough.
The defect in the concrete, it's not just that they think it, they say it, they say it out loud. You know what we're going to say going forward in our own minds when they say it. You can't implicate me in this ugliness you can't because I'm grateful for the breath. I woke up breathing. Okay, you are wherever your thoughts are. Make sure your thoughts are where you want to be. But you got to make the effort. And here's the effort according to Thessalonians, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Messiah. Yeshua. Psalm 118 this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Gratitude should not be conditional. It is a conscious daily choice, more than the last Thursday in November.
And then, you know, the better you get at it, like anything, the bigger and harder the muscle works. You know, what you're able to do eventually, when you really learn to see even the simple things, is you can actually flex that gratitude muscle when things are not going good.
That's a real skill.
That's a real skill. Philippians 4 For whatever circumstance I'm in, I've learned to be content.
I know what it is to live with humble means. I know what it is to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. I've learned the secret of contentment, both to be filled and to go hungry. To have abundance and to suffer need. I can do all things through Messiah who strengthens me. Here's a real sin simple exercise. You ready for this one?
Gratitude journal. I've talked about it a lot of times. Science. There's proven science. Three things. Five minutes. Five minutes you can do writing down in your gratitude journal every day because it's a daily discipline and a daily practice. But here's a little twist of the gratitude journal instead of because if you open most people's gratitude journal, don't do that. They won't appreciate it. But if you did, you'd see things like, I'm so happy for my family. I'm happy we're able to pay our bills. I'm happy for this vacation. I'm happy that my marriage is this. I'm happy. And all the great and amazing things that you're so happy for because they're good. What if your gratitude journal consisted of thank you for this incredibly difficult person that I am dealing with in my life who is teaching me xyz.
Thank you for this difficulty that I'm facing at work, which is threatening all kinds of things that make me very uncomfortable. But thank you for the lessons that you're actually teaching me through this, God. Thank you for this trying circumstance, God, which is allowing me to draw near and closer to you and feel a sense of comfort that you are actually there and that you are with me. What if that was your gratitude journal?
That changes it a little bit. But it's important because that's what Paul is saying.
But listen, I want.
That's a real, you know, gratitude muscle. But I want to make sure you know that I know how difficult this life is unless to be accused of fairy taling or Pollyanna. You know, Pollyanna. Did you see the. Ever see the movie Pollyanna? It's old. It's from 1913, I think. And she had this thing in this movie that her dad taught her. It was called the Glad Game. The Glad Game was, hey, whatever it is, be happy it's happening. Accept everything in all circumstances. Pollyanna. So maybe I am Pollyanna because that's actually what the Bible and the sages say and the stoic philosophers and the Buddhist philosophers and whatever you go across the whole platform, everyone's saying the world's going to deal you a crappy hand.
Deal with it.
Be grateful for the challenges. Mark Twain said, it's not about being dealt a good hand, it's about playing the hand you're dealt well.
So I understand that the world is unpleasant.
But in conclusion, as I was finalizing this teaching yesterday, I got a message from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, my favorite weekly email. I read it and he does these quotes and this quote was in there as I was putting this all together. Scientist Donella Meadows on being proactive yet positive. Listen carefully. I should have put this up there. I need to put this on. Shalom at home. And you need to write it down and you need to remember it every day. When you're thinking, like Marcus Aurelius about all these surly people that you're going to meet and you're thinking about Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, and you're thinking about where your thoughts are going to be, I want you to think about Donella Meadows. Ready? There is too much bad news to justify complacency.
There is too much good news to justify despair.
So good.
There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There's too much good news to justify despair. Recognizing the good and acting on it does not mean that we ignore our responsibilities to rights the wrongs in the world or act like they don't exist. It's the second part of the line, that quote that needs to be recognized. It's so easy to find the bad. Just ask me, do what you can about it. But there's too much good news to justify despair. On some level, we are called to be the repairers of the world. Tikkun olam to bring good. To bring it you gotta find it, and to find it you gotta look for it. And so it starts in every circumstance like Paul said, doing that.
So here's your summary and conclusion. I was gonna sing it today, but I couldn't sing high enough to get to Every morning.
Every morning.
I graciously thank you, living an eternal king, for restoring the soul within me with compassion. Do you know what it means beyond the literal thank you God for the opportunity to get out of this bed and go and live a life and see the good and impact the world for good and in the end to hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant.
Be thankful for God's sake.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Shabbat Shalom Please Visit our website shalommacon.org to learn more about us. Join our Live Services Access other Teachings Sign up for our Newsletter Join our private network that will connect you with our greater community from around the world or contribute to the work of Shalom Macon. Thank you for watching and we look forward to connecting with.
