Gratitude’s Light
When I first moved into my house, all eight lights above my bathroom mirror were lit. One day, the light on the far left went out. I told myself I needed to remember to pick up a new lightbulb, but the impact was minimal. Sure, it was a little dimmer on that side, but overall, the room was just as well-lit as before.
A few months later, I noticed another had gone out. The same inner dialogue took place. I needed to get a new bulb, but six out of eight lights was plenty. Maybe six bulbs was a more balanced amount of light for that room, I thought.
Of course, I forgot about the lightbulb errand until this morning when I noticed only two lights were still shining. The room was much darker than I remember. There wasn’t that bright illumination from the mirror. The light was dim, dispersed, and unbalanced. I had completely missed four additional lightbulbs going out. Now, instead of just needing some bulbs to brighten the room slightly, I was getting close to having no light at all!
This morning I was praying about thankfulness and how easy it is to forsake gratitude. Our ability to live in the joy of thankfulness can wane ever so slightly, like the lightbulbs going out one by one over my bathroom mirror.
At first, we might notice a dip in our attitude, more focused on the negative and the scarce than the goodness and the grace. We tell ourselves that we should be more grateful. We make a mental note that we are in need of a spiritual check-up. But we recognize that we are still in good shape overall. It’s not like anyone else will likely notice that one lightbulb is missing.
Then we cross a line. We blow up at a friend or family member. We fall into sin. We say something we didn’t mean to say. We recognize that our eagerness to prayer and worship is dimming. We struggle more than normal to engage with the scriptures.
We give ourselves a more serious talk, committing to picking up two replacement bulbs and getting things back on track.
If we don’t return to gratitude, we might wake up one day with a more persistent grief. Only two lightbulbs remain, and we didn’t even notice the other four dropping off. Suddenly, the task is not to try and boost our light back to 100%. We are faced now with the risk of our light going out completely.
Gratitude is the light of our prayer life. The more we have of it, the more clearly we can see how we ought to pray. The more thankfulness and joy that fill sour hearts, the more we are able to see God’s goodness and celebrate his grace. When we lose gratitude, our prayers become narrow, dim, and hollow.
Gratitude is like a lightbulb. When we put it in the socket and flip on the switch, it shines brightly! But gratitude doesn’t burn forever. It needs to be renewed daily—even hourly. That’s how the hymn goes, “I need thee, O I need thee! Every hour, I need thee!”
Renewing gratitude looks like taking the time to remove the old, burned-out lightbulbs and replace them with new testimonies of grace. It looks like a daily checkup on the state of our inner world and the commitment to constantly renew our faith before God.
This pattern of replacing the old lightbulbs with the new is something like what Isaiah prophecied in Isaiah 61:3 ESV, saying, “To give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”
That’s the final and most important part of this lesson. We only have such hope because of what God has promised in his word. It’s a promise of renewal. Replacing the old with the new.
Let your life be a participation in the grace of God by daily renewing gratitude before him.
