Maturity and Gratitude

Preaching through Ephesians has been good for me this fall, and I hope good for our church too. One theme that has jumped out to me is maturity. How mature are you as a follower of Jesus? Maturity looks like knowing what you believe so that you're able to engage with our culture wisely, recognizing both the good and the wrong, and working towards healthy communities. It looks like serving others instead of yourself, it looks like unity (as I talked about in my last post), and maturity looks like gratitude. All of these things that reflect maturity, except the first which contributes to and shapes the others, are all outwardly looking attributes.
The one that strikes me the most however is gratitude. The most mature followers of Jesus I know are those who look at their lives, no matter how difficult their lives have been, no matter how much suffering they have experienced, they're all able to thank God regularly and sincerely for who He is and how He is present in their lives.
I have a 3 year old grandson living with us, and it's an amazing blessing because I see the wonder in his eyes as he sees and learns something new. I've learned to appreciate the world around me all the more again as I look at it through his eyes. But I'm also often reminded that he is a child and has a lot of growing up to do before he becomes an adult, which is alright since he's only 3 years old. What I've learnt again is how children can be so happy one moment and then how angry and upset they can be the next minute simply because something has not gone their way, or because they don't have something they suddenly want. This is because children are inherently focused on themselves. The goal as parents and adults is to help them grow out of this self preoccupation, and yet the church seems to often to be filled with children in adult bodies concerned about themselves first and often unwilling to be sacrificial in their relationships with others. I will take some responsibility for this as a pastor in not teaching and equipping our members well enough, but at some point, it is also a personal responsibility for each follower of Jesus to grow up and become spiritually mature.
Gratitude allows us to be sacrificial because we've learned to trust that God is with us, that he loves us and is working out all things for our good even if we don't always understand why some things happen the way they do. A spirit of gratitude reflects on how much we already have instead of what we don't have, it does not focus on what others have that we don't. Grateful Christians know that they can be part of a church and not always need everything to go their way; they look at what God is doing now instead of constantly harking back to the "good old days," and look at how they can build up the church to create an atmosphere of blessing.
As we head into advent, join me in counting our blessings. Write them down, share them with others, and if you're struggling with this, ask others what they see in your life that you can be grateful for. Sometimes we need others to remind us of how blessed we really are and how much we can be grateful for.
Personally, these are just a few of  the things I am grateful for: my wife, my children and grandchildren. I am extremely grateful for a church community that is growing closer together and are becoming more deliberate in being followers of Jesus, for a church community who has allowed me to make mistakes and helped me grow as their pastor. I am grateful for God who continues to work to save His creation and sent His son Jesus to save us from our sin that we might experience God's blessings.