Thinking About Gratitude by Lee Cave

Sometimes I substitute teach one of our Sunday School classes.  Once when I did this the lesson was from Deuteronomy, a book I had always thought of as just a bunch of rules and regulations. The lesson writer, however, pointed out that since Moses knew he was about to die, Deuteronomy was really Moses’ “last sermon” to the people he loved.  I mentioned to the class that this reminded me of “The Last Lecture”, a book based on the last lecture of a professor before his death from cancer, a book that I had not read but wanted to.

Just two days later, the mailman brought me a package containing a new copy of “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, along with a very sweet note from one of the class members thanking me for substituting in their class.  This nice gesture touched me very much.  It also got me thinking.  Over the years, I had experienced many wonderful Sunday School lessons, not to mention sermons and special music, but I couldn’t remember even once sending someone a thank you card, much less a gift of appreciation.  As many times as I had been blessed at church, why had I never shown my gratitude in some tangible way?

The very next day, with this question still on my mind, I spent a couple hours volunteering in the Food Pantry at Highland Community Ministries.  (I take turns covering a 2 hour shift with another church member, so my contribution amounts to only 4 hours a month).  Occasionally people from the neighborhood clean out their pantries and bring in their extra canned goods, so at first I didn’t think anything about it when a young man came in to donate some food.  However, when I went to the man’s car to help him carry in his items, I noticed that there were several boxes of what appeared to be brand new cans of food.   As this was a little unusual, I asked him if he had just bought these. 

He answered that he had and then explained.  He and his wife had been through some tough times and were themselves helped by the food pantry.  Their luck, however, was turning as they had just been approved for food stamps.  Thus when they went to the grocery the day before, for the first time in a long time, they actually had money left over after paying for their groceries.  So they decided they wanted to use that “extra” money to help others benefit from the food pantry just as they had.  As he put it, they wanted to “pay forward” the kindness.

Well, with the thoughts about gratitude already on my mind, this young man’s story hit me like a ton of bricks.  Would I have been so quick to feel grateful, much less express that gratefulness?  Would I have so quickly “paid forward” the kindness?  I had to admit that if I had been in that man’s shoes I would have still been feeling sorry for myself, not feeling grateful, much less expressing it.