An Attitude of Gratitude

"God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble... Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you... Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you...
Because of the grace God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the standard of our God-given faith." Proverbs 3:34; 1 Peter 5:6-7; James 4:7-8; Romans 12:3

What a year it has been.  It was just over a year ago that I got the wild hair to run my second full marathon.  Just before Thanksgiving of 2009, I began conditioning myself so that I could begin marathon training in time to run the 2010 Country Music Marathon.  Since then I have logged over 1,200 miles, ran an almost full marathon (would have finished if it wasn't for that pesky thunderstorm that rolled in around mile 18), a 10k, and ran and helped train a whole team of people for a fall half marathon.



Some of the 1Voice Runners after the

2010 Franklin Classic - a few of the

people that I am truly grateful for.

Most of the time, endurance running is considered an individual sport... and there are many anecdotes out there about the lone long-distance runner - probably because much of the training is done alone.  But in my experience, especially this year, running is far from being a solo endeavor.  I will even go out on a limb and say that hundreds of people contributed in someway to my running season - and without them (whether I knew them personally or not) my year would not have panned out the way it did.  It would be nice to say that I did all 1,200 of those miles on my own... and that I ran those races on my own... that I organized all those Saturday training runs by myself... that I gave all that advice all out of my vast knowledge and expertice - it would really stoke my ego up a bit... but it would be a lie.

Our culture loves to make much ado over the "self-made man or woman" but in actuality, there is no such thing.  Even getting down to the bare basics of life, every "self-made" person would not even exist, were it not for a biological mother and father.  And then there were the people that, at the bare minimum, sustained the "self-made" person's life while said person was too young to care for himself.  Over the years, scores of people either sacrificed themselves or were sacrificed for Mr. or Mrs. Self-Made's success.  The question isn't whether a person is self-made or not.  The question is, does the person believe himself to be self-made, or does he or she see and appreciate all the minutia of countless contributions made on his behalf throughout the course of his life.

This is where we get to the heart of humility.  Humility is not about debasing yourself.  Debasing yourself can actually be a form of self-centeredness and pride... to where you see yourself as being so individually bad that you can't be helped.  True humility is thinking accurately about yourself.  Did you get to where you are all by yourself? The truth is no, you didn't.  The humble person would acknowledge that fact, and would give credit where credit is due... and in turn would be very greatful.  True gratitude flows out of true humility.

Humility and gratitude are powerful.  Hand-in-hand, they open the gateway for so much life to be released into your life.  As you see in the scriptural quotes above, God resists the proud.  He resists those who believe that they are self-sufficient... who need nothing and no one.  Yet, He gives grace to the humble.  Grace is a gift.  Gifts are always offered... but a gift is not truly given until it is received.  Someone who believes that he needs nothing or doesn't want to admidt that he needs something is not going to receive a gift.  Only someone who is humble will receive a gift that is offered.  That is why Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3)".  The poor in spirit know that in and of themselves, they have nothing... so they are fully willing to receive everything that is offered.  God is willing to offer us so much.  We just have to be humble enough to receive it.  By admitting our need, we receive all that we have need of... and that in turn produces a heart of gratitude, which bears the fruit of thanksgiving.  When we give thanks, we are reminded that we aren't in this race all by ourselves... we don't have only ourselves to rely on.  We are reminded that all we have, in one way or another, has been given to us, and will continue to be given to us as we have the need.  And what does that produce? Peace.  Check this out:

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." Philippians 4:6-8

With that, here is one practical application of an attitude of gratitude in our everyday lives, written by Ryan Hall:

The Power of Thankfulness  By Ryan Hall

November 27, 2010


When I was in college I wrote three words on three different 3 by 5 cards. These were words that I wanted to be engrained in my character. One of these words was “thankfulness“. At this time, I knew that one of the keys of having a positive attitude on a daily basis is finding something to be thankful for no matter what was going on around me. What I discovered in my pursuit of the thankful heart is that achieving a thankfulness is not a destination, it is a continual journey. To this day I am still trying to adopt more of a thankful heart and spirit.
With Thanksgiving just a couple of days away it is a good time to look at our lives and consider how we might be able to grow into more thankful individuals. I know from my own experience that thankfulness is closely tied to the amount of joy I experience on a daily basis. I have experienced that when I am finding things to be thankful for, there all the sudden seems to be an increase of things to be thankful for. Thankfulness is like a snow ball rolling down a snowy hill. The more thankful I am the easier it is to find things to be thankful for and the more blessing seem to increase around me.
Running is a great illustration of the benefits of a thankful heart. One of the tools I use to help me endure pain during a race is to focus on what part of my body feels good when I start to get tired. For example, when I ran 2:06 at the London Marathon I remember my calves tightening up 10 miles into the race. For a couple of minutes I began to panic as I wasn’t sure if I could make it to the finish if my calves were already tight so early in the race. However, rather than focusing on my tightening calves I focused on the rest of body that was feeling exceptionally good. Being thankful for the good shifted my focus from my calves. This was the last time I thought about my calves for the rest of the race and my thankful spirit lead to a personal best performance.
Thankfulness is a powerful way for us to get through tough times. It unlocks blessings in our lives and increases our joy. I encourage you to let this Thanksgiving kickoff a season of focusing on finding things to be thankful for, whether on the run or in the office.

So I'll end this post with my thanksgiving.  There is no way for me to thank, much less remember all those who gave in some way toward my year in running, but here are a few:

• My wife and family... thank you for giving me the freedom to run... even on Saturday mornings.
• 1 Voice Runners... thank you for allowing me to pour out in you all that has been deposited in me... and thanks for the companionship on all those Summer Saturday morning runs.
• Fleet Feet Nashville... thank you for the awesome marathon training that you offered this spring.  It definitely helped and inspired me throughout this year.
• HCA... thank you for being a place of employment that sees the importance in personal fitness and gratiously placed that belief in the thousands of dollars you gave to encourage people to participate in the Country Music Marathon and Half-Marathon
• My co-workers and boss... thanks for all your support this year... really!.
• All those who sponsored me this Spring as I ran in support of the HCA Hope Fund... you really did keep me going, more than you know.

I could go on and on... but I think you get the picture.  I couldn't have done it without all of you!

Let's keep running the race, willing to receive help and being thankful along the way.