BROADCASTS.com

I thank my God every time I remember you. (Philippians 1:3)

\xa0

This first little sentence of the letter is worth lifting up all on its own.

On the one hand, we know that Paul did not begin all of his letters this way (for example, see: Galatians 1:6).\xa0 But Paul did begin many of them this way\u2014with thanks to God for the church he was writing to.

Gratitude is not always\u2014perhaps not even very often\u2014our first reaction when someone pops into our minds.\xa0 Often we think of someone because that person is connected to something we have to do, or something we have felt that we still need to process.\xa0 For example: a person could pop to mind because of some challenging interaction we\u2019ve had with them that we\u2019re mulling over, or something challenging going on in their life that we\u2019re thinking of supporting them in, or some task that we still have to complete with or for them.\xa0 People may certainly come to mind for other reasons, but I think that covers the bulk of them.

So people become to-do lists in our minds or they become situations rife with emotional complexity.\xa0 But how often is it that our very first act is giving thanks to God when a new name or face comes to mind?\xa0

Perhaps these are not immediately people that we\xa0are thankful for.\xa0 Nor even that we want to be thankful for.\xa0 But what if we did it anyway, as Paul does here?\xa0 In Christ and in the humility of Christ, there is always a reason to give thanks for another person created in his image\u2014another subject of his love.\xa0 Indeed, as Paul said in his words of greeting: the grace of Christ was already with and among this church and its people.\xa0

In the Greek language Paul wrote in, \u201cgrace\u201d (charis) and \u201cthanks\u201d (eucharisto) are nearly identical words.\xa0 Grace is the \u201ccharis\u201d that God gives to us, and \u201ceucharist\u201d is the grace that we give back to God in response.\xa0 You may, in fact, recognize an older, but common word for the Lord\u2019s Supper in this second word \u201ceucharist.\u201d\xa0 In Greek, this is simply the word thanks, which is how the meal came to be known early on in the life of the church.\xa0 But to come back to the main point: in response to the grace of God given to and through the Philippian church, Paul responds by thanking God.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

CS Lewis once noted how the best way of learning to love someone was to start to do the actions of love toward them.\xa0 Start acting like you love someone, and eventually you may just find that you do.\xa0 Not all at once, of course.\xa0 But slowly you may find that you are annoyed less, that you begin to notice positive or clarifying, nuancing qualities in them more.\xa0 New possibilities open up that weren\u2019t there before.\xa0 Eventually forgiveness and love begin to flow as well.

It all starts with a word of thanks.\xa0 If not at first a true thanks for the person that\u2019s come to your mind, then at least a responsive word of thanks to God for the self-same gift of grace that he gives both to this person and to you.\xa0

Try it out in the next day or two.\xa0 Every time you remember someone, respond in thanks to God for them before you do anything else.\xa0 In this small, repetitive act of faithful response, just see what God might do within you to increasingly transform your mind to that of Christ\u2014and transform your relationships too.

\xa0