How Long Does Gratitude Last?

There was a bunch of poor kids from the neighborhood playing a pickup game of football at the park. A good day for them was making it home with no broken bones or any cuts from the shards of broken glass strewn across the field (the park doubled as a seedy hangout by night, where junkies and winos would gather in their stupors).

A wealthy man, wearing a suit and tie, pulled up to an adjacent stop light in a luxury sedan. The presence of wealth in this part of town was rare. One of the kids said, “Hey, let’s ask this rich dude for some money so we can all get some pop.” So, they dropped the football and raced towards the car. Surprisingly, the man didn’t recoil as he noticed the rush of dirty faces approaching him. Instead, he said, “Hey kids, you look like you’re kicking up a lot of dust out there. You must be thirsty.” Unsolicited, he proceeded to give each kid a buck. As soon as each of them swiped the money out of his hand they bolted away, with only soda on their mind. The last kid, the poorest of the lot, took the dollar bill from the man’s manicured fingers, looked the man in the eye, saw genuine kindness, and felt an unspoken kinship pass between them.

When the light turned green, the man began to pull away through the intersection; but, before he got too far, the last boy flagged him down, shouting, “Hey, sir, I just wanted to say ’Thanks’. Folks don’t do stuff like this for kids on this side of the tracks very often. I appreciate it.” The man’s heart overflowed with his own brand of gratitude. He pulled over to the curb (by now the other kids were long gone) and handed the boy his business card. He said, “How about you come work for me on weekends? You can still play ball with your friends, but you can start making your own money. What do you say?” The boy accepted the job and ended up running the man’s multinational company when he grew up. What started with a single expression of gratitude ended in a lifetime of blessings.

To the other boys in the group that day, the rich man was nothing more than someone to be used. They saw an opportunity to make a quick buck and they seized it. They neither had any respect for the generous man, nor did they show it. They gladly accepted his gift, but their selfish hearts never took the time to even convey a “Thank you.” They missed the greater blessing that the humble boy enjoyed for the rest of his life - a relationship with an incredible man.

Like the man in the car, God wishes to pour His grace upon us. Even unbelievers benefit from His grace; yet, even knowing that He exists (Romans 1:18-20), they do not pay homage to Him. It’s not that people won’t gladly take what He gives, it’s just that their gratitude, if it even exists, is only momentary and then it’s gone, drowned out by a cacophony of plans to pursue selfish gain elsewhere. The plans of the arrogant are predictably self-limiting. Nowhere is this more prominently realized than in the spiritual life.

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Based on the context of the story, nine of the lepers were presumably Jewish, since Jesus instructed them to go show themselves to the priests. By social standards, even among pariahs like lepers, a Samaritan would’ve ranked lowest. However, like the poor humble boy in the story, it was the Samaritan, the one whose heart was touched by Jesus’ graciousness, who was ultimately blessed eternally with saving faith.

God saves the humble. A person with fleeting gratitude is arrogant, undelivered.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.
Even we believers must strive to remain humble. We are to “clothe” ourselves with humility (v5)! We aren’t simply to wear a mask that is quickly donned and then removed. This is the pattern of the arrogant, who morph like chameleons for the sake of selfish gain, changing their “faces” to whatever gives them an advantage. False displays of respect towards the gracious are evil.

Gratitude lasts with the truly humble, that is the distinction. It begins at salvation, where a true believer’s heart is forever changed - giving thanks to the Lord for saving them is part of who they are, atomically. A person who somehow manages to forget the miracle that supposedly took place at their own salvation is a person who’s never truly tasted eternal life. A saved person is a changed person.

Does this mean that believers cannot become arrogant and “forget” where they came from? Of course not. We are still sinners, after all, so the sin of ingratitude is something we commit regularly. The encouragement here is that we actively remind ourselves where we came from, like the boy whom the wealthy man plucked out of poverty.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
It is good to live a life of gratitude. We are blessed by it and God is glorified.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins