Everything
in life that we experience is something to be grateful for. This
statement may seem almost obscene or at least insensitive to those who
are experiencing health issues or financial problems or turmoil in
their personal relationships. Yet, it is still the truth and it
is a truth that can bring about change in our life experiences if we
are willing to choose gratitude over its opposites. Genuine
gratitude always calls us to give. What we give we must give
from a sense of having received something. This giving is the
natural result of believing that we have ... even if the having of it
has not materialized completely.
"The
LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and
I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices;
and with
my song will I praise him.” - Psalm 28:7
In
this exaltation of faith we can see that the Psalmist is giving a song
of praise. This impulse arises from the heart of the soul.
It is filled with a sense of trust and conviction that cannot be
denied. This is the Power of G-d within mankind. It is an
assurance, a knowing and a truth demonstrated. To give a song of
praise may be all that we have to give at any given time, but it is a
giving and it is a necessity to seal the bond of trust between
ourselves and our Creator. Those who ignore or dismiss the
impulse to give lose their sense of gratitude quickly. As
the Master Mind Jesus stated, "For to
everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance;
but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be
taken away." Gratitude must result in giving for it
is our true nature to give when we have received.
This
is what the American author, educator and clergyman Henry Van Dyke
tells us about gratitude: "Gratitude
is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the
natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the
following of that impulse." The word
"thanksgiving" is listed as a "noun" in the
traditional dictionaries but in reality it is a
"verb." Thanksgiving without an act of expression
is meaningless. As we realize more and more that everything
begins and ends in Mind or Spirit, the UnSeen, then this truth brings
forth a greater awareness.
There
is a theory that follows this assumption: "Our external
physical reality is a mathematical structure." In other
words, 2x2=4 and this simple mathematical calculation expresses as a
domino effect throughout the universe in which we live. The
cosmologist Max Tegmark's hypothesis is considered a form of
Platonism, the philosophy of Plato. It is a philosophy that
affirms the existence of abstract objects, which are asserted to
"exist" in a "third realm" distinct both from the
sensible external world and from the internal world of
consciousness. Many Platonic notions were adopted by the
Christian church which understood Plato's forms as God's thoughts,
while Neoplatonism became a major influence on Christian
mysticism. It is a theory that forms the basis of the Law of
Attraction and the Master Mind Jesus' statement "as you sow so
shall you reap." Both which are realized as Compensation
which the great Emerson stated so clearly: "Life
invests itself with inevitable conditions, which the unwise seek to
dodge, which one and another brags that he does not know; that they do
not touch him; — but the brag is on his lips, the conditions are in
his soul. If he escapes them in one part, they attack him in another
more vital part. If he has escaped them in form, and in the
appearance, it is because he has resisted his life, and fled from
himself, and the retribution is so much death."
We can never escape the
reality that all is consciousness. The consciousness that
thrives in life is a consciousness of gratitude and is expressed as
thanks-giving ... grateful to give for we have received ... 2x2=4 ...
and we shall reap the good results always of our givingness.
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the
faith!
Rev.
Henry Bates
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