Living in the Flow of Gratitude

by Pastor Gina Johnson

Well, we have been moving through this series of living in the flow. And I have to tell you this past week, you know, it's amazing what we give life to. Because when you give life, and I've been talking about these things a lot lately, when you give life to noise and distractions, or if you take something that's happening and you blow it out of proportion with your fears and your doubts and your emotions, when you listen to all the whispers around you and let all of that drowned out the truth of who you are and the connection you have with God, with the source, with all of creation. It's all one in the same. When you let your worries and your doubts shake your confidence, shake that power and that peace that cannot be touched because it comes from the spirit. When you let the noise drown out the truth, it's really challenging to stay in the flow.

And I have to start by saying thank you because I got through this week with several people who reminded me of their love and their presence, and it kept me in the flow.

I thank my God every time I remember you because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

Those aren't my words. Those are the words of Paul. But I mean every bit of those words as I share them with you.

That's my heart song for you today and every day as I continue to be in this place as your minister, as your shepherd, as your friend, as your family, as your sister in Christ Jesus. I thank my God every time I remember you. Maybe some days it's like a sarcastic, oh, thank God.

No, I'm kidding. It's never that way for my children, perhaps. But that's the truth, is that we have to have a deep, deep gratitude for God and what God has begun in us and among us and have confidence that the story is not complete.

Even if the chapter ends, even if that volume gets closed, there's more to come. So I have to tell you all, this is a part of my message that I put in, I took out, I put in, I took out. I became a minister, give or take, in about 2014.

In 2013, I was at a Methodist church in Sedalia and I became one of the staff pastors, staff directors, but I didn't have any like official credential status. And then in 2014, as I went to local licensing school, I was then able to get sent to my first congregation in 2015, which was a two point charge. So that means I would serve two churches and I served one in Lamont and I served one in Hughesville and they were both older congregations.

And many of you have heard me tell this story, but the congregation in Lamont was called Blackwater Chapel. And Blackwater Chapel had a huge congregation. It was ridiculous.

Was it like seven people? Seven people. And so when the Johnsons showed up, man, I looked like the best pastor ever because I beyond doubled the congregation, right? Because seven plus eight, that was phenomenal. But I'll tell you what, there was something in that space.

You know, I think in the summers we grew by some members because we had some snowbirds, but we had a presence of the spirit in Blackwater Chapel that I will never forget. We would have what's called the Lord's Acres Sale. And when we had that, it was a bunch of people having their own little auction in the basement. You know, and it was the weeks leading up to that where we made apple butter. And here's me. You know, I grew up as a military bat, city to city, and I'm going to go out and make apple butter.

And the first thing I'm thinking is, like, do we need bug spray? Like, am I going to get bit? I'm not even concerned about apple butters like you guys. I swell up. So, I'm freaked out about that. I'm wondering how long it's going to take.

Are my kids going to get restless? What's this going to be? And I get out to this person's home and there's just so many people there. And I'm thinking, where are they on Sunday morning? No, I'm not. I'm thinking, oh, OK, so this is that large Blackwater Chapel family that I've always heard about.

And it was wonderful. And everyone treated me not like I was the new minister. “Oh, that's that young gal and her big family. They're going to be our pastor for a few years now.” Everyone treated me like I was one of the family members who they knew. I mean, the hugs I received, the stories I got to be a part of. It was wonderful.

And from there, I ended up going to First Christian Church Sedalia and it was wonderful there. Chad McMullen, a mentor, a friend, someone who taught me so much of what to do and what not to do and always tried to pour into me. It was such a great place to be. But I have to tell you, you tend to form expectations. Of how you treat your congregation and how they treat you.

And so from Sedalia, I went to First Christian Church Warrensburg. And as I was so ready, so ready and so eager, I tapped into this part of me that my mentor called Ramjet the Rookie. And I thought that person was asleep, but they weren't because I went in there, guns a-blazing and then COVID-19, boop, that was the end of that.

On the fifth week that I was there, I've told you all multiple times, I stood in an empty sanctuary with about 12 to 15 hymnals stacked in a pew with my phone facing towards me and I created their first Facebook Live ever. And what an interesting journey we embarked on. But I remember coming into that place with a teaching from one of my previous mentors and that teaching formed in me something that I'm not very proud of.

And this gets to the part that I said I thought about putting it in, taking it out, putting it in, taking it out. October 19 was Pastor Appreciation Sunday. And this isn't actually that point where I'm like, “hey, how many of you all knew that?” But I will say this, one person said something to me.

But I want to tell you something. Not even last year, you know, the year before that, when I had my first full year here, I remember having all this expectation of how much I wanted to be loved and appreciated in that month. Because when I was in previous congregations, the senior ministers and the mentors there would tell me, “oh, October is coming up. Let's make sure we remind the congregation. Let's make sure it's in our newsletter.” And I'm pretty sure, my first year here, I said the same thing to my Office Administrator.

And I thought, what is that? Why did I fall into that? Is that what things are really about? Because in that moment last week when someone had texted me and then the same person spoke to me on Sunday, I thought to myself, what a moment of reflection for me. Not to question whether or not I was valued. As many storms as we've risen through, I think I feel valued here.

I really do. I know I'm valued here. And it wasn't a moment for me to question whether or not you guys love me enough or what's going to show up in my box.

It was a question for me to recognize that. Let me stop and listen to what God is trying to teach me in this moment. It wasn't about being appreciated.

It was about appreciating, about coming to a space of recognizing how blessed I am to have you all in my life. And it's funny because in the month prior, I had that same moment at one point in time where I said, you know, maybe this month is the month where God is inviting me to lose that saying, but isn't this how it's always been? Isn't this what the intention of this is for? And to let it go and recognize that, you know, there's something different brewing here. And this time, it's not about whether or not I'm feeling valued or appreciated.

It's about looking at my flock and saying, my goodness, I hope you know how much I value and appreciate you. Whether you are texting me or calling me or emailing me to remind me of what I haven't done or need to do better or need to correct, whether you are texting or email or calling me to show your love and consideration, whether you're calling or texting or emailing to ask a question, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we have this connection and it means so much to me that you all know how much I love you, how much it means to me to have a label, whether you feel it in your hearts or not, as your pastor, as your minister.

And as I reflect back, and it's going to be our three-year anniversary together in January, as I reflect back, I think, wow, I've learned so much here. I've grown so much here and I couldn't have done these things without you. And so this week, as we are living in the flow, I wanted to talk about living in the flow of gratitude and how much gratitude changes everything.

Have you ever been angry? Have you ever been just so P.O.'d, you want to scream, you want to break something, you don't know what you want to do. And you just take a moment. And what's my favorite word? You pause.

Right. And when you take that moment and just come into stillness and start thinking about all the things you have to be grateful for, how quickly, how quickly things change. How many things you have to be grateful for.

You know, it's one of those things where it just changes everything. Just envision this: going to bed at night and thinking about everything you don't have, everything that went wrong, everything that's been a loss, all the things you could have done better.

And tell me the next morning what kind of night's sleep you got. Tell me if you wake up with a sore neck, sore back, sore shoulder and a sore attitude. But what happens when we go to bed and we pause and we just say thank you.

I was going through my Facebook shorts that Virginia so beautifully creates for everyone to hear more of the message. And I recognize that I talk about pausing with gratitude often. I talk about pausing and saying thank you often, pausing and remembering who you are and what God is doing in you.

I talk about that often to bring you back to that space of recognizing that we have so much to be grateful for. We don't need to react. We don't need to figure out how we're going to make it better.

We need to just pause for a moment and be grateful. And so Sunday, October 19, is Congregation Appreciation Sunday. And I have this power and authority to enact that.

I had handwritten thank you cards to my congregation members on the pulpit with me to hand out. I was going to run around hand them out but Coby told me kick off time was at noon and if I run around hand them out it's going to slow down the message. So I chose to wait until the end of service to give them to everyone there. But I want you to know that it was great because as I went through writing to each of them I got a moment to really just be still and celebrate the connection we have. And sure for some of us the connection is not as deep and lengthy as it is for others of us.

But the truth is as I wrote each card I was like “Dang! I am so blessed.” And think about this: how long have you all known each other? How long have you all been here together as friends as family and beyond?

So, just imagine, take how blessed I am and multiply that because it's absolutely beautiful the gratitude that we have. You guys are the evidence that God's work is still unfolding.

You know if we look at this past year we had this amazing pancake supper that was put on by our youth.

We had that legacy Sunday that filled this place and it was beautiful.

We had a wonderful Easter breakfast.

We had a graduate Sunday in which we got to honor many of our Indian students.

We adopted the middle school in the last school year and so we got that second semester of showing them our love and appreciation.

We honored the carnival workers. If you guys remember that was kind of a last minute thing and it still came out extraordinary.

We had the Christmas in the summer.

We celebrated a two year anniversary of The Giving Tree ministry.

We became credentialed as a green church. And we had a phenomenal over 100 people in attendance.

We had the Show Down Hoe Down Chow Down just the other day.

Yes, we've had some losses. We've had some transitions of people on. But we've also had some celebrations and we've had three new members join this year. And I know of another one who's going to be joining soon. So, when we look at all of that and just know you all probably have celebrations and memories from this past year that I don't know or I don't remember.

And when I think about that I know that that is the meaning of heaven being here and now. You understand the spirit notices how our hearts continue to pour out to one another and to this community. And it's so easy, with the empty pews and the challenge budget and people that we love and care about passing on, it's so easy to forget to be grateful. It's so easy to look past all the amazing things that we've done this year and guys it's only October. We still have two more amazing months this year to show our love, to show our outreach, to show our ministry to not only this community but to the world because every time we put love out into this community it goes beyond our reach.

It goes beyond what we can see. It goes beyond what we could ever imagine. And that is the power of the spirit.

As your pastor I couldn't be more thankful for how you all continue to teach me and remind me what love is, what faithfulness is, what endurance is, what perseverance is as you continue to show up in this place. And just keep your mind focused on what God is doing here and we will see a day where we show up in this place and we're like, “Wow! Do you remember when it used to be only about 45 of us?” And we can laugh together and we can celebrate because we know the seeds we are planting, the truth that we are putting out into the world will continue to grow.

I heard a story once about a village that rebuilt its meeting hall table after a flood and the table they had there was long and it was huge and everyone was able to fit around it and even though they came together there for meetings, they also came together there for meals and they would laugh and they would share stories and it was always so wonderful.

Well, when there was a flood one year, the table had to be rebuilt. And when they rebuilt the table, they didn't build it as long. They built it to fit those who showed up to help do all the rebuilding. And there was a young child who said, “Well, where are the new people going to sit?”

It was interesting because, in that moment, it caused some of the older members of that community—some of those who remembered when they were that young child, just amazed at the size of this big table and how people filled it, and how, in other times, it was a little more empty, and how then people filled it again—and so these older members of the community said, “We need to rebuild this table.”

And they did. Because, you see, that question woke them up to realizing that the miracle was never the table itself; it was the space that it made for others. It was the love that showed up when the people put in the time to welcome everyone to that table.

When they built it again, yes, new people showed up. It didn't happen overnight, but they showed up. And that’s what gratitude does—it builds a table even longer, even wider, and it brings more seats. Because forgiveness and gratefulness—it's what keeps the love alive. It’s what keeps the table set. It’s what keeps us needing to bring in more chairs.

You guys ever come to a meeting or an event, and it's like, “Oh, we got to get more chairs”? What a great feeling to have! And when we keep building the table in our hearts wider and wider so everyone can come and take a seat, then we'll have to get more chairs.

You know, Philippians teaches us to give thanks—and that’s that scripture I read at the beginning—but Colossians, Colossians shows us how to wear gratitude every day. It says in Colossians 3: “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity”—and over all these virtues put on love—“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since, as members of one body, you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

And be thankful. You know, that’s what people wear—that’s the wardrobe of grateful people. They put on compassion to serve as perhaps their coat, and forgiveness to be their pair of slacks, and they use love to be that belt that's going to hold it all together.

How often do we wake in the morning and remember to put on gratitude and forgiveness and love immediately, at the start of our day?

I want to go through some quick lessons with you all that come from gratitude.

Lesson one is: Gratitude awakens the heart.

How many times have you sat at a table and felt that feeling of being home? You know, gratitude first learns to breathe when it is expressed amongst a group of people who really show up to love each other. It’s what turns our ordinary spaces into holy spaces. It’s when a meal becomes more than just filling our stomachs, but it becomes filling our hearts and filling our souls.

Gratitude always can remind us that we're all playing for the same team, that we're all wearing the same jersey—even when we disagree. You may not want to go the direction I'm going, but it doesn't mean that I'm not grateful for you, and vice versa. Gratitude doesn't erase the hard days between us, but it keeps them from defeating us. It keeps those hard days from defining us, from taking us down, because gratitude reminds us there’s always something to be thankful for.

And so, as you go through your week this week, I want you to notice in your own homes: what is one of those spaces that you are grateful for, where your love and gratitude have turned that into more than just the chair you sit in or the table you eat at?

The second lesson is about grace—and how grace frees the spirit.

You know, in Colossians 3:13, it says, “Bear with one another and forgive each other.” In our workspaces, and some other spaces—like our church spaces, our school spaces—that’s where grace can really get tested. You know, our daily responsibilities can start to pile up and really test us and really cause us to feel, “Am I going this alone? Does anyone else here feel what I'm feeling? Is anyone else gonna help me get through this?”

But when you have grace, it frees your spirit, and you recognize that you're never battling alone—that when someone else is in a tough place, you are there to be their strength, and when you're in a tough place, they're there to be yours. Grace is what chooses to let go of tension and take on peace. Grace is what chooses to let go of pride and clothe yourself in humility.

There are times where I know that I get through my workday because of you—that I get through the challenges in my home because of you. I get through the different things that may be rising up in life because of you. That’s what grace does—it enables us to free the things that are binding us so we can be grateful.

So, as you go into your week this week, remember that grace should lead your words, should lead your actions.

The third lesson is: Friendship restores joy.

In John 13:34 it says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” How many of you have those friendships that are sacred ground? Because that’s exactly what friendship is.

And as I was sitting there writing those cards, and as I wrote the word friendship in certain cards, I thought, “Is that strange? Do they think of me as their friend?” Well, guess what—I think of you all as my friends! So, it doesn't matter to me if you think of me as your friend, because friendship is what restores joy.

When Jesus says to love one another as I have loved you—what a beautiful command in that! He’s saying, “Know the love that I gave you. Feel the love that I give you, and share it with others.”

You know, maybe the Spirit is nudging you to reach out to someone again. Maybe the Spirit is nudging you to build a bridge where one once was, but it got torn down by a disagreement or something silly—you can’t even remember why you stopped talking to that person. This is the time to know that friendship restores joy.

And if you're following Jesus’s teaching, then go and seek out that person sometime this week. Pick up a phone and pick one friend, and just call them—simply have no motive, no agenda—but to say, “I am so grateful for you. I am so thankful for you.”

Lesson four is: Love keeps the body connected.

You know, each church family is going to go through a season of pruning, but pruning is never meant to be punishment—it’s meant to be preparation for new fruit. When we embrace gratitude and forgiveness, it keeps our church from having a hard heart. It keeps our church from losing sight of what we are here to do.

Love is that connective tissue that holds this body together. Love is that strength when things around us feel weak. Love is that passion and that drive to go the extra mile when it already feels like we've gone so many and we can't make it another. Love is what we should see and feel every time we encounter one another—because that is what we are, and the truest essence of what and who we are. We are love, because that is what our God is.

And the last lesson is: Hope—hope carries the light beyond these walls.

And this hardly touches the way that our light in this church has gone beyond these walls—and I’ve only got to be a part of the past three years of it. You all know this church has brought hope, has brought love, has brought gratitude, has brought peace into our community time and time again.

In Philippians 2:15, we’re called to shine like the stars in the world. When we face a fearful world, it needs hopeful people. And it’s our gratitude—it’s showing up in that flow of love and gratefulness—that knocks away the skeptics, the cynicism, the people who want to keep moving around with the bitterness. When we carry the light of hope into the world, it helps shine into the darkness that some of us have chosen to embrace, when there’s so much light available.

You know, we may not be able to control many factors in the world today, but we are always able to control our spirit. We're always able to control what we put out—whether it’s through our thoughts, whether it’s through our words, whether it’s through our actions. We are able to make that decision: “Am I going to walk into the world as a light of hope and love and peace? Am I going to walk in the essence of gratitude and forgiveness? Or am I going to sit in the dark, and focus in on all the things that aren't going correctly, on all the things that I've lost, on all the things I have not?”

We get to make that choice each and every day. And I pray—I pray that we will always choose to show up in love. I pray that we will always choose to be grateful, even grateful in the times where we are unsure how the next year is going to go, where we are unsure when these pews are going to get filled up, when we are unsure when our loved one is going to pass.

I hope, in those moments, we can have the most gratitude—because it’s those moments where we have the opportunity to show up and play all out as the loving, empowered children of God that we are.

Yes, challenges are not fun, but we wouldn't be who we are without them. We wouldn't be sitting here united and in the space we're in, ready to move forward into a great new chapter, if we didn’t make it through the challenges we’ve had in the past.

As Philippians has said: “I thank my God every time I think of you.” Every time I remember you, every time I have a moment and one of you comes to my mind, I am grateful. And remember that when you, too, choose that gratitude—when you choose to clothe yourself in compassion and forgiveness and in the truth of love—then we are living in the flow. Then we are showing up as the Christ-like individuals that we are called to be.

Church, I really do appreciate you, and this really is my day to say to you: thank you. I love you, and my family is so grateful for you—the people that you have welcomed into this space on my behalf. We are so grateful for you, and you are doing an extraordinary job.

And so I don't have any, you know, frills or things to end this with, but to just say thank you. The story isn’t over, so let’s lock arms, and let’s write that next chapter with gratitude and with love.

Please pray with me.

Lord God, we are so grateful for all that you continue to remind us of. We’re so grateful that you are a faithful God, that there is nothing that’s going to come that we will not persevere through. God, we are so grateful for those faces and those names of those people who we haven’t met yet, but we know we’re going to get to serve. And we are so grateful for those who have walked alongside of us, who may not be here any longer in physical presence, but will always be in this place, meeting us at that table.

And God, most of all, we are so grateful for Christ Jesus—the example that Jesus gave. He is our way-shower, our master teacher. May we recognize that he is not dead, but he is living among us. And may we take up the Spirit of the Lord as we go forward.

In his most beloved name, amen.