Healing Rays of Righteousness

Whenever we sit down to eat, we have two options about the way we partake of what is put before us. We can approach the meal with a negative spirit, wishing we were at a different table, critical of the way the food is cooked, unhappy about what we are being served.

Or we can sit down with gratitude and appreciation that a meal has been provided for us, and thoroughly enjoy what we have been given. And the choice we make from these two options, most likely, says a lot about our attitude toward life in general.

We have the same two options when we sit down at the table of life. We can either partake of life events and experiences with resentfulness and bitterness, or we can respond with confident trust and gratefulness to these same realities.

We humans are never free to determine what table fare will be set before us, but we are free to decide how we will partake of it, whether with resentment or with gratitude. And our choice makes a vast difference in our spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being.

Our life is a daily challenge in choosing the right response to disappointment and difficulties. Every pain has the potential for gratitude or resentment. Every problem provides opportunity for creating a stronger faith and discovering new relationships.

The need for surgery can make us dread the pain or thank God for the surgeon’s            skills. Stormy weather can create dreary complaints or gratitude for the sunny days. The death of a spouse can produce a terror of the future or a song of thanksgiving for ten thousand shared joys. A grateful heart discovers possibilities and blessings in what others cannot see or overlook.

I heard of a psychiatrist who prescribes a simple cure for the depressed persons who come to him seeking help. He instructs his patients to say “Thank you” whenever anyone does them a favor during the next six weeks, and to emphasize their words with a smile.

He reported that the patient usually replies, “But, doctor, no one ever does anything for me.” To which he responds, “That’s why you are sick, because you don’t look for reasons to be thankful.”

The psychiatrist reports that two results flow from this treatment: One, the patient becomes less discouraged and, most importantly, persons who associate with the patient become much more active in their affirming words and deeds toward the patient.

This treatment confirms a principle of life. Grateful thanks sincerely expressed usually returns to the giver as grateful appreciation received. It also confirms the biblical principal of doing to others what you would want done to you.

It is interesting to discover that whenever the Gospel writers depict Jesus as eating a meal, they describe him as doing what he would later do at the Last Supper; “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, … Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, … (Mark 14:22-23).

This was more than just an ancient Jewish ritual. It is a portrait of the way Jesus sat down to the banquet table of life, and of how he related to what God was setting before him.

Jesus was not resentful of the fare that was placed before him. He did not mistrust the intentions of his Father. Rather, a grateful acceptance of every event undergirded his whole life, and this opened his life to the joy and peace that so beautifully filled and characterized him.

The way Jesus took the bread, blessed it, took the cup, and gave thanks, is a model of how life is to be lived at its deepest level. I am convinced that here is the real secret of joyous and victorious living, and that it is within the grasp of every one of us. We are not free to determine what experiences of life will be set before us on the banquet table, but we are free to decide how we will respond to them.

Jesus took the bread and blessed it. He took the cup and gave thanks. And therein lies the secret, open to all who will learn it. Our reconciliation to God which Jesus came to bring to us consists of sitting down to the table of life with a thankful heart. And what better time is there to begin living with trustful gratefulness than right now?

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” (Psalm 23:5-6, NIV).

<><><><> 

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – September 15, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley