The Widespread Mercy
"In prayer itself there is no fixed order, but both a primary impulse and the experience of praying people show that the first stage may be thanksgiving.
A lecturer to a group of businessmen displayed a sheet of white paper on which was one blot. He asked what they saw. All answered, 'A blot.' The test was unfair: it invited the wrong answer. Nevertheless, there is an ingratitude in human nature by which we notice the black disfigurement and forget the widespread mercy.
We need deliberately to call to mind the joys of our journey. Perhaps we should try to write down the blessings of one day. We might begin: we could never end: there are not pens or paper enough in all the world. The attempt would remind us of our 'vast treasure of content.'
...the prayer of thanksgiving should be quite specific: 'I thank Thee for this friendship, this threat overpassed, this signal grace.' 'For all Thy mercies' is a proper phrase for a general collect, but not a private gratitude. If we are 'thankful for everything,' we may end by being thankful for nothing.
The thanksgiving should also probe deep, asking, 'What are life's abiding mercies?' Thus gratitude would be saved from earthliness and circumstance, and rooted in Life beyond life. 'Count your many blessings,' says the old hymn, 'and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.' This prayer should end in glad and solemn resolve: 'Lord, seal this gratitude upon my face, my words, my generous concern for my neighbors, my every outward thought and act.'"
~George Buttrick
A lecturer to a group of businessmen displayed a sheet of white paper on which was one blot. He asked what they saw. All answered, 'A blot.' The test was unfair: it invited the wrong answer. Nevertheless, there is an ingratitude in human nature by which we notice the black disfigurement and forget the widespread mercy.
We need deliberately to call to mind the joys of our journey. Perhaps we should try to write down the blessings of one day. We might begin: we could never end: there are not pens or paper enough in all the world. The attempt would remind us of our 'vast treasure of content.'
...the prayer of thanksgiving should be quite specific: 'I thank Thee for this friendship, this threat overpassed, this signal grace.' 'For all Thy mercies' is a proper phrase for a general collect, but not a private gratitude. If we are 'thankful for everything,' we may end by being thankful for nothing.
The thanksgiving should also probe deep, asking, 'What are life's abiding mercies?' Thus gratitude would be saved from earthliness and circumstance, and rooted in Life beyond life. 'Count your many blessings,' says the old hymn, 'and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.' This prayer should end in glad and solemn resolve: 'Lord, seal this gratitude upon my face, my words, my generous concern for my neighbors, my every outward thought and act.'"
~George Buttrick
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