Choir Notes

Another Kind of Gratitude
From Music and The Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4236

In the lunchroom of a busy workplace, groups of employees were eating and visiting with one another at a dozen different tables. Suddenly one man stood, panic in his eyes. He was choking and couldn't call for help. As he began turning blue, alarm spread through the crowd. But for several agonizing moments, no one stepped up to help him.

All at once a man came forward and gripped the choking fellow around his ribs, squeezing him in a series of tight jerks until the food was dislodged. Amazement and joy swept through the onlookers as they felt a rush of appreciation that someone knew the Heimlich maneuver. The man embraced his rescuer in a moment of true thankfulness.

But there was another kind of gratitude at that moment. It was humble appreciation, on the part of the hero, that he had the knowledge and the strength to be able to help in an emergency.

It's one of life's great truths that the giver of selfless service feels just as much joy--and just as much reason to be thankful--as the receiver. Whenever we are in the right place at the right time to help, we feel an overwhelming sense of thanksgiving to our Maker for using us to bless someone in need.

We often give thanks for things we have received. But we should not overlook this other type of gratitude: thanks for what we can do for others. American poet Edwin A. Robinson described these two kinds of gratitude as "the sudden kind we feel for what we take, [and] the slower kind we feel for what we give."

Being able to make a difference in the lives of others, to be useful, to be kind, to help, is a blessing that fills our hearts to overflowing with humility and gratitude. As we take count of life's bounties, let us remember and give thanks not only for our families, our good fortune, or our health but also for the marvelous ways God can use us to bless the lives of others.

1 "Captain Craig," in Captain Craig: A Book of Poems (1902), 5.