When We Are Grateful, We Are Most Fully Alive

"And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you able to have a share in all that He has prepared for His people in the kingdom of light." Colossians 1:12

The opposite of greed is not poverty but rather generosity. While it is no small challenge to learn how to live without, it is an even greater challenge to learn how to live with. The pursuit of poverty is an abdication of responsibility. Although we must not live just for ourselves, at the same time, we must not be afraid to enjoy what God has given us. God entrusts people with resources not so we will hoard or ignore them, but so we will use them for the good and enjoyment of others. Too many of us neglect the good we could do to avoid the evil we might do. The solution is not to stop doing good in order to ensure that we don't do evil. God frees us from sin not to leave us empty but to fill us with life. His goal is not to replace sin with inaction. We don't fill a vacuum with a vacuum. We overcome selfishness with servanthood and greed with generosity.

As tempting as it may be to live detached from the world around us, it is not in keeping with the heart of God. It is so easy to confuse Christianity with Buddhism in this way. We know that greed corrupts and destroys, so we erroneously conclude that the only way to be free is to detach ourselves from all human desire. So much so, that we can even withdraw ourselves from the world in which we live. Jesus, on the other hand, clearly enjoyed the life He lived. He was chastised by the religious leaders of His day for not living a monastic existence. Jesus was having way too much fun for the Pharisees and Sadducees who watched His every movement. When we replace greed with generosity, we basically exchange a black hole for a virtual wellspring. The goal is not to have less, but to give more. Generosity is the result of a life in continuous overflow!

God is the ultimate expression of wholeness. The dilemma in our pursuit of wholeness is that brokenness is often laced with ingratitude. Nothing will heal us if we are ungrateful. Gratitude is central to the entire experience of the Christian faith. Of course, 'gratitude' and 'grace' both share the same Greek root word 'charis.' A life of gratitude makes us whole, overwhelms us with love, and moves us to live generous lives.