Whatever happened to "thank you"?
- Ming Dao Ting
Article 1 (Jul 06)

Being grateful is a commendable quality, one that most would agree is noble and right. In our world today, we still try to inculcate in our children a sense of gratitude; no one really wants to raise a spoilt brat who thinks the universe revolves around them. Yet one would have difficulty arguing against the fact that these very qualities have been slowly diminishing and disappearing with each coming generation.

Today, children are possibly more selfish than ever before, and parents aren't totally exempt from blame. Lessons in school or seminars in the workplace need to be conducted to teach us the importance of saying "thank you", or how to show appreciation, as if such things are so unnatural to us. The loss of gratitude is a serious loss, and in its place we now see a sense of egocentric entitlement, and you don’t need much imagination to see where things will head from there. Have we all forgotten what it means to be grateful?

Thanking is an act that's intrinsic to our being. When something good happens to us, it is natural for us to want to express gratitude, in some form. Why, then, is it seen to be so lacking in our world today? Let me suggest that one reason why thanking is such a rare practice is that a bigger question has surfaced: who is there to thank? If the universe just "happened to be", then so did we, and so does everything that happens to us. And if everything just "is", then really, who is there to even thank? You’re either lucky or not. Everything is random.

Furthermore, we humans think that the establishment and accomplishments of our modern world are due 100% to the sheer will, intellect, strength, and power of mankind alone. If anyone is to be thanked, it is ourselves, for we are great in our own eyes. Yet it is against this very sentiment that God reminds us that all the nations are like a drop in a bucket (Isaiah 40:15); it takes but one catastrophe to bring a nation to its knees, and history is replete of such examples.

Misplaced gratitude?

Imagine that you're in an airplane, flying some 10,000 metres in the air above the open sea. All of a sudden, one of the plane's engines loses its power and dies. Through a strange series of incidents, the remaining engines lose their power too, one by one, and the whirring noise of the propellers slows down to a chilling silence. You hear the pilot's quivering voice over the PA system: "Ladies and gentlemen… ditching is inevitable." You feel the plane dipping, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it. You can't believe that this is how it's going to end. Then, one engine spontaneously restarts itself, and the pilot just manages to gain enough power to bring the plane safely down to ground. Who do you thank then?

This sounds like a story from the twilight zone, but what I described actually happened several years ago, en route to the Caribbean Islands. Imagine disembarking from that plane and being greeted by your family, the very people you thought, just a few hours ago, you may never see again. Whatever your background, it's likely that you’d have this on your mind: thank God.

These days, people say "thank God" almost as a habit or reflex, even if they don't actually believe in a God. Yet the phrase exists and persists, because when miraculous things happen to us in life, our hearts need someone to whom our gratitude can be expressed. You may, at this point, say that God therefore is a necessary construct (i.e. make-believe), so that our thankfulness can be directed somewhere. But the very preceding point is unexplained – why do we even feel this 'misplaced' gratefulness in the first place? It is far more reasonable to say that God actually does exist, and has made us to be thankful creatures, thus explaining our common desire to express gratitude to something that goes beyond mankind.

All over the world, millions of people wake up each morning grateful to God for life and strength. Heads are bowed before meals and quiet prayers recited before bedtime, as boys and girls, young and old, reverently recognise God's sovereignty and thank Him for who He is and what He’s done.

Perhaps you've never seriously thanked God before. That's fine. Why not start today? If the universe didn't just "happen", and God actually created us, then our place in this world is tremendously significant, and nothing happens to us by accident. For every good thing in life, and even every difficult and trying thing, thank God, and you’ll find within your heart a peace unexplainable, for it finally found the one to whom its thanks truly belongs.

"I suppose it is like this. If my children wake up on Christmas morning and have somebody to thank for putting candy in their stocking, have I no one to thank for putting two feet in mine?" - G K Chesterton
Can't think of what there is to thank God for? Click here to see what God has done for you.

Article partly adapted from Can Man Live Without God, by Ravi Zacharias.

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