OPINION
Thanksgiving and Christmas were always my favorite holidays.
As the weather turned cold, we huddled around the fire with hot cocoa and cider, we told stories of years past, and my dad’s record player played Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song.”
Don’t get me wrong, the other seasons have their own unique activities and celebrations, but there is just something about the magic of these two holidays that sparks something special inside of me.
Yet, the past few years, I have felt a strange hesitation creeping in, as though the cultural air has thickened.
We live in an age of grievance.
Whether justified or not, our public imagination is increasingly shaped by outrage, accusation and the feeling that someone, somewhere, must be blamed.
And in the noise of all that grievance, the quiet magic of gratitude is getting harder and harder to hear.
When our focus shifts constantly toward outrage, perpetual offense and grievance-as-identity, the lens through which we see reality becomes clouded with bitterness.
One might respond, “But, there are travesties in the world, there are injustices which surround us, how can we celebrate while so much suffering is occurring around us?”
Gratitude does not deny injustice; instead, it keeps the reality of injustice from poisoning the soul.
These two concepts are not mutually exclusive.
In fact, gratitude becomes a foundation for hope.
It reorients our hearts toward future blessing and sharpens our ability to notice grace when it appears.
The Apostle Paul encouraged his friends, “in everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18, NASB).
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mirrored this sentiment: “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”
A thankful heart is rooted in hopeful anticipation and reorients us toward future blessings.
Furthermore, it trains our worldview to see the blessings as they occur, rather than be drowned out by the chaos of the world.
Retrieving the ancient and miraculous discipline of gratitude will help to recover the warmth of the holidays, which so many long for.
We must search for community over commentary, formation rather than entertainment, wisdom versus noise, and relational depth rather than cheap, non-committal exchanges.
The holidays provide ample opportunity to begin to recover these practices.
Holiday meals, church services, Christmas concerts, winter recitals—the opportunities abound.
Yet, when we engage with others, we should resist the urge to debate the most recent news cycles and algorithmically generated rage-bait.
We tend to fall for the traps of anger and frustration.
Instead, lean into the warmth of the holidays, read a classic novel, share a cup of cocoa with friends, make a gingerbread house, not because it is food for the body, but because it’s food for the soul.
The holidays invite us to see the world differently, or perhaps more accurately, to recover an ancient and wiser way of seeing.
The spirit of the holidays places gratitude above grievance as the governing story of our lives.
Yet, gratitude is not an easy discipline.
G.K. Chesterton said gratitude was “nearly the greatest of all human duties, (and) nearly the most difficult.”
Although the fire may crackle a little quieter these days, gratitude still warms the heart.
Let the warmth of a grateful heart guide you through the holidays this year.
After all, in an age of grievance, gratitude doesn’t just warm the holidays; it restores them.
Steve Stanley is a Providence Village resident with a doctorate in ministerial leadership. He can be reached at stevestanleyacoustic@ gmail.com.
