Gratitude

There’s this guy in my neighborhood – let’s call him Lance – who is the most enigmatic person I’ve ever met. Our relationship started out on shaky ground because, well, enigmatic people make me uncomfortable, and I confess that I tried to avoid him for the better part of a year. But this guy sincerely wanted to get to know me and to be my friend, and eventually his effervescence dissolved the cold, hard shell around my heart. Over the past few years, I’m glad to say that Lance and I have become good friends.

The best way I know to describe Lance is that he’s what would happen if scientists somehow made a clone by mixing the DNA of Billy Graham and Jackie Chan. He has Graham’s love of Scripture, passion for people, and classic southern drawl, and he’s got Chan’s endless energy, infectious smile, and child-like spirit. Whereas I once avoided him, whenever I walk into a room and see Lance these days, I immediately feel a little bit better about having walked into that room.

Lance is a regular at The Story Church, and after almost every Sunday service, he comes rushing up to see me and, regardless of how the sermon really went, he tells me all about how much he got out of it. He always gets something out of every sermon – even the bad ones – and he never stops looking for a reason to say “Thank you!”

For quite some time, Lance has been in immense physical pain. His career in upscale landscaping – and his love of playing tennis – really took a toll on his knees. So last month, Lance had his left knee replaced, which meant he had to do the impossible: keep still and stay inside.

I fully expected this experience to send Lance into an emotional tailspin, but last week, when I saw him for the first time post-surgery, he looked as chipper and unstoppable as ever. When I asked Lance how he coped with being immobile for weeks on end, his telltale intensity shot through his eyes and he said, “I didn’t really think about it that way. I just thought of it as more time the Lord was giving me to study the Bible and pray, so that’s what I did.”

That really got me thinking. What is it that separates the Lances of the world from the rest of us? Why is it that, when faced with circumstances that would leave the average person feeling aggrieved or anxious, Lance kept smiling? Is it all just an act? No, it’s who he really is. After all, this is the guy who once bought my family a thousand water balloons to play with at home because, in his words, “Y’all are way too uptight.”

You might think a man like Lance is foolish or silly, but you’d be wrong. He’s a highly successful architect who runs an incredibly successful business. Some would say he’s just childish, but they’d be wrong too. He’s one of the most spiritually mature and biblically knowledgeable people I’ve ever known.

Gratitude is what sets Lance apart. No matter what life throws at him, he chooses to be thankful. Whether he’s on his feet playing tennis, on his knees planting azaleas in someone else’s front yard, or flat on his back recovering from surgery, Lance’s attitude of gratitude remains the same.

Thankfulness isn’t merely a feeling that some people experience while others don’t. It is a choice that we all can make.

Lance will be the first to tell you that he hasn’t always been so cheerful; in fact, he used to be extremely temperamental and volatile. He used to make enemies, and now he makes friends.

What was it that transformed “Lance, the angry bully” into “Lance, the best friend a guy could have”? It was Jesus. Coming to faith in Christ led Lance to realize how much he had to be thankful for, so every time he prayed, he said “Thank you.”

And because gratitude is like a muscle – the more you use it, the bigger it gets – Lance grew more thankful by the day. He found himself thanking God for every little thing – every random encounter with strangers in the city, every opportunity to learn from his mistakes, and yes, every sermon from his long-winded preacher (even the bad ones).

It’s gratitude that makes Lance so unstoppable, and it’s Jesus who makes him so grateful. 

As we prepare for the holidays, I’m challenging myself and all of you to follow in Lance’s footsteps and to choose gratitude over cynicism and thankfulness over self-pity. Every morning, before reaching for your phone or watching the news, I hope you’ll join me in taking a moment to say, “Thank you, Jesus, for everything.”