No Short Cuts

by  Traci Hubbard

Howard was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was extremely angry. She told him "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!" The next morning, Howard got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway. Confused, she put on her robe and ran out to the driveway and brought the box back in the house. She opened it and found a brand-new bathroom scale. Howard has been missing since Friday.

When it comes to being loving and grateful, there are no short cuts. These two ways of being in the world are born and nurtured in our freedom to connect with others, grow alongside others, love others, and serve others. We live in a country where human beings are free to spiritually, emotionally, and physically choose meaningful connections with ourselves, the Divine, creation, and others. I have been thinking about this simple yet profound reality all week. And the more I contemplated that I am free to be intentional in how I choose to connect with LOVE and others, the clearer it became to me that gratitude is the energy that seeks out and creates meaningful connections.

Recently I discovered that lately when I am alone, I seem to be in a funk – kind of down. I’m doing all the right things – the good things, personally and professionally, and things are going well. So, why I am feeling blah? I sat with this question and stirred it until I could clearly see myself. When things are going well, really well, and people get busier and busier, even doing something they love, one can forget to practice gratitude and become enslaved to obligation. The opposite of gratitude is indebtedness – obligation, which is slavery. How many of us get up in the morning and drudgingly try to connect with the Scared, ourselves, others, and creation because it’s the right thing to do. That’s what we call ‘Going through the motions’…which is not whole-hearted living…it is the opposite of loving the Extravagant Energy of LOVE that constantly abides in us. Imagine your partner, or your pet, only cuddling with you to get some dinner – for what is in it for them. That’s a horrible feeling. We would be constantly wondering if our person or pet is grateful for our presence in their lives. We would wonder if they genuinely loved us. We would wonder if they really wanted to spend intentional time connecting with us. For me, that would be like standing on a scale to weigh myself after every meal. When we live just through the motions, we are living an anorexic spirituality that forgets we are free to dine on the cornucopia of LOVE’s thoughts towards us. And when we take short cuts in how we show up in the world, short cuts in how we express our love for the Sacred and others, we lose the ability to be thankful for the precious ordinary.

Think about this for a moment – when your person reaches for your hand, when your cat or dog jumps into your lap, when you pluck a piece of fruit from a tree or vine, when you have hiked to the top of the mountain and gaze at the beauty all around you…those moments are the ones most dying people talk about meaning the most to them…and they are grateful. When you see in front of the ocean and watch the tide gift the sand with treasures from her deep, if you’re anything like me, you not only sense, but you also feel the presence of unfathomable energy and love all around you. When your grandchild reaches for your hand, says I miss you and love you, you feel it and it’s the most real palpable experience that poets, songwriters, and film makers try to capture so we can experience our most important moments over and over again.

Folks, we are free human beings – free to choose to love with our whole selves. LOVE never offers us a table half set. The Spirit always offers us the very best that she is. As I thought about this, I wondered if the Spirit of LOVE is grateful when we desire to connect with her with our whole hearts. I believe so. I believe the Spirit is full of gratitude because she is continually offering herself to us, always present, always longing to deeply connect with us, accepting us, and holding each one of us just as we are in every moment. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

I love you, I really do. It does not matter what you have done, or what you wish you had done, or what you are doing or will do. I love you, and you can’t stop me. Now if Traci in a funk can choose to do that, imagine how the Spirit of God simply, wastefully, and extravagantly loves each and every one of us. This love is more than we felt when we held our child or grandchild after they were born. This love freely pours out all she is to us before our first breaths, as we breathe, and she will continue loving and being with us after our last breath.

Are you, am I, truly in love with the ways of Jesus? With the Spirit of eternal LOVE? Are we truly grateful for the time we have to choose to love our neighbors as ourselves? Are we grateful for the cornucopia of souls that fill this room this morning…for the souls who will gather around our tables for turkey and stuffing, or if you are vegan, for whatever vegans eat on Thanksgiving?

Or are we living as unaware parrots, looking for what is in it for us, using an invisible scale to measure who is worthy of our time, presence, and service? If we want love in our lives, filling us with spiritual tryptophan, we need to look inside and see where we need to love ourselves better, so we can love others out of our gratitude for being loved with a love that by LOVE’s very nature will never let us go.

If we love with a suspicious love, we will be like the wife who came home late one night and quietly opens the door to her bedroom. From under the blanket, she sees four legs instead of just her husband's two. She reaches for a baseball bat and starts hitting the blanket as hard as she can. Once she's done, she goes to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine. As she enters, she sees her husband there, reading a magazine. He says, "Hi darling, your parents have come to visit us, so I let them stay in our bedroom. Did you say hello?"

Gratitude is a clear lens, and it is the secret ingredient in the recipe of love. Enjoying our freedom to choose gratitude is like maple syrup on a stack of pancakes—sure, we could eat them plain, but why miss out on the sweetness? When we live with grateful hearts, when we notice the sunrise, the laughter of friends, the kindness of strangers, the volunteers in our Thrift Store, the hands and hearts who created this beautiful Thanksgiving Chancel, we become more open, more patient, and yes, more loving.

Gratitude softens our hearts. It helps us see the good in the Divine, the beauty in people, and the joy in everyday life, in the moments that matter the most. Gratitude reminds us that every moment is a gift, and every person is worth cherishing. Loving the Holy and loving our neighbours isn’t a scale or a test we will fail, it is a no short cut journey we are free to enjoy. And a grateful heart is like a loonie in our pocket, it makes every day a little brighter, and we never know when we’ll need it for a grocery basket or parking meter.

So, how do we live this out? How do we become people who love our Eternal Friend with all our heart and soul, and love our neighbours as ourselves? Let’s leave this moment together committed to begin with the simple things like saying thank you, looking for the good inside the messy moments, giving kindness and our time generously, acknowledging with gratitude the big things, little things, and things that did not go as planned but taught us something crucial. And always, always folks, may we forgive quickly so we can free ourselves and others to become rooted in love.

Do you want to know how I rose out of my funk? As I was writing this reflection, I watched deer emerge from under my living room and roam around the beauty outside my window. How in the world I landed here to serve and love, I’ll never understand, but I know who placed me here with you. I know LOVE loves me and I am so very grateful. I want to be more than a parrot, I want to live aware that I am free to love and be loved, and what on earth can be better than that. Happy Thanksgiving, and if you have an anniversary coming up, please don’t forget about it. May it be so, amen.