Practices of gratitude can be distorted when we imagine that Christians are always supposed to be smiling and cheerful, even in the face of suffering, tragedy, or grave injustice. To live gratefully is not the same as denying the misery or evil around us. Misunderstandings of the importance of gratitude can turn it into a…

Henry Knight clarifies the relationship between gratitude and praise by noting, “If gratitude is thankfulness to God for benefits received, praise could be defined as the acknowledgment of the excellency of God’s attri­butes, and most especially God’s holiness.” Christine PohlClick to TweetFrom the book “Living into Community” Available on amazon.co.uk*Available on amazon.com*

Part of the recent emphasis on gratitude or giving thanks is surely a response to the epidemic of complaint, envy, presumption, and dissatisfaction that undermines human relationships and plagues many communities. These forms of ingratitude are deadly: they kill community by chipping away at it until participants long to be just about anywhere else. While…

Gratitude operates at several different levels: thanksgiving and praise to God, gratitude as a posture for life, and gratitude as a response to others for who they are or for what they have given to us. Christine PohlClick to TweetFrom the book “Living into Community” Available on amazon.co.uk*Available on amazon.com*

If we really understand our lives as redeemed by costly grace, then our primar response can only be gratitude. Christine PohlClick to TweetFrom the book “Living into Community” Available on amazon.co.uk*Available on amazon.com*