Nail and Hammer

Ladies, we're going to try to look at a chapter each week.  Though some of you are still just picking up the book or getting started, we're going to look at Chapter 3 this week.  By doing this, it will be manageable for everyone who needs to, to catch up, and for everyone else who has already started to continue to comment on new material.  If we do a chapter each week, we'll wrap up this book review by about the end of March.

Feel free to go back and comment on past posts and remarks too.  Maybe you don't have as much to say about Chapter 3 this week but you've had some new thoughts on Chapter1 and/or 2.  That's okay. 

Chapter 3 - First Flight

This is where change can begin.  Ann writes. “How in the world, for the sake of my joy, do I learn to use eucharisteo to overcome one ugly and self-destructive habit of ingratitude (that habit causes both my cosmic and daily fall) with the saving habit of gratitude - that would lead me back to deep God communion?" (p. 44). 

I have to stop right there and ask myself, “Am I really going to take this challenge seriously?” My dear sisters we have just begun this journey and if you are logging on for the first time I want to welcome you. I also want to challenge you as Ann did by saying it’s time to start working on that list.

It can feel too simple at first to list little things for which we can be thankful but no matter the size - every gift from God is worthy of a sacrifice of thanksgiving.  Even in the darkest of moments, there is something in that moment or situation for which to give thanks.

Chapter 3 is where Ann introduces the life changing daily attempt to look for and discover the many gifts He has given us so that we may recognize the great love of the Father. For all you list makers you are surely in your glory. I love lists. I could make a list for my lists.

I thought I would try something a little different in an attempt to better relate to my electronic friends, so I got the app! The extraordinary discovery is that I can document those moments that I choose to receive joy by capturing a photo. My inspiration came from a quote Ann used by C.S. Lewis. “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you will find it quite intolerable, think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.”

I am often amazed at how many times we can all get caught up in pursuing happiness as the end goal of all our living.  I am appreciative of this challenging quote by C.S. Lewis too...  it reminds us that our experience here is about bringing God glory and Ann's story shares with us this one way that we can develop of a habit of doing so in fostering an act of gratitude regardless of all.

I hope to use the words written by Ann as a part of my training which leads to quote page 56, “Some days I pick up a camera and it’s a hammer. The lens is my ink, for cameras have sensor eyes and pixels record.” I am better equipped to record the gift by snapping that photo and I have found that I take the time to truly practise a heart of gratitude as I record that special moment. As I learn to familiarize myself with the modern technology I hope to eventually share some of the amazing discoveries I have made, like the day the clouds parted and the sun came through the moon roof of my car. I stopped put the car in park and snapped the shot. This gave me to opportunity to pause and thank God for the “sun” (and Son!) that he sent. When we are truly open to receiving and recognizing His presence in our daily life, amazing things will happen. I believe there are no such things as a coincidence but only God-incidence and there it is on the bottom of page 58, “the clouds open when we mouth thanks.” Sisters, believe me when I say I had not yet read this passage when I deliberately paused to snap the photo through the window glass.

It is important to recognize that not all of us are word-oriented...  Ann's use of her camera (and MM's!) show us another way to capture our thanks.  For some of us, there may be a song that comes to mind that we offer up in thanksgiving, hands lifted when out in the glory of a beautiful sunset...  so if you don't feel as poetic as Ann when listing your items - it's okay.  How you capture or record your thanksgiving is not nearly as important as our making a point of doing so.

As I sit at my keyboard reviewing the third chapter, I find that in this review there is far more that I must open my eyes too. The second time reading through the chapter makes the highlighted notes jump vividly off the pages. I find myself open to receive all that He wants to reveal to me and the sheer slippery pages of my bible sing a sweet hum as I flip to find Ephesians 5:20. If I may be so bold to add my desire to the word, “I will be thankful for everything.” I love Ann’s word on page 57, “…slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life…life changing gratitude does not fasten to a life unless nailed through with one very specific nail at a time.”

The quote by Erasmus that Ann includes on page 48, "A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit" speaks to me as to why it is sometimes so difficult to change our behaviours.  I will not be very successful at becoming less discontented or ungrateful by simply "stopping" that attitude or its thoughts... but if I deliberately replace that behaviour with the gratitude that I need to foster then it becomes a possible task.

The concreteness of the nail and hammer for changing our behaviour is striking.  It gives us a significant image that we're all familiar with to wrap around the concept of being deliberate in fostering this new behaviour.  And just as when we're using a real nail and hammer and may sometimes miss the mark and even hit our thumb, any frustrated effort or pain in the process is always worth the gain of what we can accomplish if we persevere.

Sisters…grab your hammers.  And let's lift each other up whenever we hit a thumb or miss the mark.  It will take practice.

MM and MS.