Exchanging Grumbling for Gratitude

If you google “thankful list” or “gratitude journal,” your cup will runneth over with blog entries, lists, and articles from mental health groups, self-help life coaches, and mindful humanist philosophers, along with flower-studded, farmhouse font-laden, purchasable diaries for ladies in particular. Counting one’s blessings has become a popular and lucrative trend in our culture. Aspirants are hoping to lower anxiety and depression and increase personal happiness and quality of life.

Believers practice gratitude as well, though with an entirely different meaning, motivation, and mission. In practical living, however, Christians can still search for the quickest escape when painful trials come—even while we embrace the understanding of God’s sovereign, faithful goodness in ordaining all circumstances.

The Roots of Grumbling

As with all sin, pride certainly lies at the root of discontentment. Jonathan Edwards labeled pride as the “worst viper that is in the heart,” the first sin that “entered into the universe [and the . . .] lowest of all in the foundation of the whole building of sin.”¹ Pride promptly pollutes everything it touches, and, when left ungratified—when denied what vainglory imagines it so rightfully deserves—it breeds discontentment. We perceive an array of injustices as our grumblings vary greatly in degree—from the slightest discomfort inclement weather brings in those few moments between our climate-controlled spaces to the entrenched yet tender disappointments of unfulfilled aspirations in life, and everything in between. Pride and its ensuing dissatisfaction produce sickly offspring that further grow the gnarled family tree of sin. Jealousy, envy, malice, depression, bitterness, fear, and anxiety can trace their ancestry to these ugly roots.

When discussing contentment with counselees, I often ask them what the most common activity unbelievers around them engage in, particularly if they’ve ever held a job in the secular workforce. The answer is invariably the same: complaining. Men are naturally “grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts” (Jude 16).

We naturally desire satisfaction. This design feature of humanity is fashioned by God who graciously supplies what truly satiates—Himself (Psalm 16:11). Since the fall, the sinful bent of unregenerate man leads him to search high and low in all the wrong places, from base debauchery to the “good” things of this world. But none of it satisfies, since nothing else is meant to—all else is a steady stream of temporal, glittering pleasures. The ad industry monetizes this corrupted desire to the tune of over $250 billion a year in the United States alone.²

Shining Lights of Gratitude

In contrast, believers are to be marked by their thanksgiving to God (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We should be “overflowing with gratitude” (Colossians 3:7). “Giving thanks to the Father” should continually be on our lips for “qualif[ying] us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light” because He “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12–14). Yet we still suffer from this flesh-produced proclivity to murmur. Otherwise, the apostle Paul would not have reminded the Philippians to “do all things without grumbling” because they were to be “lights in the world” who were to live “above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation” (Philippians 2:14–15); neither would the puritan Jeremiah Burroughs have had to qualify the jewel of biblical contentment as rare.³ The gospel lays a foundation of thanksgiving upon which we add “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” including the “riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:3, 7–8), but also every ordinary “thing given and every perfect gift . . . coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

A List That Counts

The Bible upholds gratitude as a God-honoring replacement for our gripes and groans. It’s not uncommon in biblical counseling to have counselees keep a gratitude journal to which they regularly add and refer. David called on his soul to “[b]less the LORD . . . [a]nd forget none of His benefits” (Psalm 103:2). Even the secular world perceives advantage here (though it’s less certain to whom they are grateful).⁴ As mentioned, the believer’s absolute foundation of gratitude is grounded in the gospel, where ultimate satisfaction in God is possible through the reconciling work of Jesus Christ. Everything emanates from the destination of our eternal souls—either of contented, eternal bliss or tormented, everlasting damnation. Every item on a gratitude list is subservient to salvation—to wit, they would all be rendered irrelevant without it.

Sometimes, it can be a struggle to add to the list in any real, meaningful way, and “Things I’m Thankful For” can quickly descend into lopsided trivialities or broad-sweeping generalities, both of which smack of vapidity. Either of these aspects is not inherently wrong by any means, but we’re often left with an imbalanced, wanting list that may undercut its intended purpose. Instead, we must remind ourselves of God’s character and promises. Rather than racking our brains to produce more miscellaneous and slapdash items for which to be grateful, consider retitling the list “Everything I Have That I Don’t Deserve.”⁵ That’s, well…everything. Everything, indeed, should flood to mind, even the myriad blessings amidst the hardest of trials.

Consider juxtaposing this list with another that catalogues “Everything I Don’t Have but Deserve.” If your list is blank, you get the idea. Or even better if it features a single item—hell. The reminder of our just and immediate condemnation for our sin puts everything into proper context and draws forth a deluge of gratitude. Lastly, don’t keep your blessings to yourself: “Oh give thanks to the LORD. . . . Make known His deeds among the peoples” (1 Chronicles 16:8). So, buy that aesthetically-pleasing journal on Amazon, and happy thanksgiving.