Pastor’s Corner | Appreciation is key

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

— I am often brought around again to the thought that perceptive appreciation is key to many of the good things in life. We encounter people daily who are much blessed, but you would never know it from the complaining and cynical attitude in which they drown any possible joy or gratitude. We see persons whose course of live has presented them with rich opportunities, but you would never know it from the negativity with which they color every experience.

I have just read Ephesians 5:17-20, and I want to quote it here and to comment on several of the things it says.

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.

Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:17-20 NIV)

I am struck first by the positive, hopeful, expectant attitude toward life that this Scripture commends to us.

We are encouraged to discover God’s will for us as a way of turning from foolish, deceived and wasteful living, and to discover God’s will as the better way, the way of genuineness and blessing. Secondly, we are encouraged to live in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be filled with the motives, thoughts and discernments of God’s Spirit.

Thirdlly, we are encouraged to let our experience of living be accompanied by the attitude and practice of thanksgiving. In all these points, perceptive appreciation is key.

Perceptive appreciation is key to faith. We come to trust God and to put our faith in His mercies as we come to appreciate God’s faithfulness toward us, as we perceive God’s initiatives which draw us into a living relationship, as we sense God’s sacrifice in giving his only Son to be our Savior and Redeemer, and as we become aware of and value God’s mercies in forgiving our sin and restoring us to his family. We come to faith as we realize that God is gracious toward us, in creation and all its potentials for blessing, in His providential care for our needs, and in how he has sought us through Christ torestore us as children of the heavenly Father.

Perceptive appreciation is also key to happiness, to seeing ourselves as blessed.Our human nature seems to lead us to focus more on what we don’t have, on what we wish we had, on what we think we must have to be happy. So strong is that tendency in us that it interferes with our attentiveness to the blessings that we do have.

A few years ago I heard an account of a visit to Arkansas by one of the bishops of the church in Africa. The people who were his hosts wanted to make his visit enjoyable, so when it came time to go out for a meal, they inquired about his preferences. Would he like to have Chinese food? an American steak?

Thai food? a Mexican dish? perhaps Italian? After pondering for a moment the choices they were presenting him, he remarked, “You people have no idea how much you are blessed!”

I thought that was a remarkable observation.

Sometimes we have so many choices we can’t decide which one would be just perfect right now.

We are frustrated because we might miss out on the ultimate finest. If we were more perceptive and more appreciative, we might see that we are presented with great abundance of blessing. More wisdom is to be found in realizing how greatly we are blessed than in trying to be sure that we experience the ultimate finest.

Perceptive appreciation also plays a key role in our motives and practices of Christian citizenship. The right to vote, one of the central rights and responsibilities of citizens, is often neglected. A perceptive appreciation of the rich opportunity and blessing we have to participate in government of the people, by the people, for the people should move Christians to become informed as voters and to be steadfast in the practice of voting. A perceptive appreciation of how patriots through the ages have given so much to secure our rights to participate in governing as citizens should likewise move us in exercising that right.

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Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Church, Pages 2 on 06/23/2010