Very Good: Educating

for Gratitude
Michael Goheen
Trinity Western University
Langley, B.C.
Gods Evaluation

God saw that it was good (6x)

Completion: It was very good!
Ancient Near Eastern
Myths
Chaos and order, evil and good
co-mixed from the beginning
Genesis: Very good, then evil
enters the world because of
human rebellion
Observations
Each part of the creation is good
as it conforms to Gods order
Whole in harmony of the parts is
very good
Creation as a
symphony
The creation is a symphony where we find a
variety of creatures each singing the praises
of the Maker in accordance with its unique
character, different from creatures of another
make. The lion is to serve the Lord like a
lion, the dandelion like a dandelion. The
difference in service depends on the
difference in the Word addressed to them.
The response of the creation to the one all-
embracing Wordserve Me!is thus a
symphony of voices in which each type of
creature performs its unique function in the
indispensable setting of the whole (Bernard
Zylstra).
Shalom of creation
The webbing together of God, humans, and all
creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what
the Hebrew prophets call shalom. . . . In the Bible,
shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness,
and delighta rich state of affairs in which the
natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts
fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires
joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens
doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he
delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things
ought to be . . . In a shalomic state each entity
would have its own integrity or structured
wholeness, and each would also possess many
edifying relations to other entities (Neal Plantinga).
Observations
Each part of the creation is good
as it conforms to Gods order
Whole in harmony of the parts is
very good
Role of humankind in creation
For the sake of
humankind
Blessing or mandate?
ANE view of human role
Delightful calling
In relationship with God

The whole Bible leads us to expect a

glorious renewal of life on earth, so that
the age to come will be an endlessly
thrilling adventure of living with God on the
new earth. With his presence pervading
every act, we shall be more fully human
than we have ever been . . . (David
Lawrence).
For the sake of
humankind
Blessing or mandate?
Delightful calling
In relationship with God
Joy of discovery
Experience of a Father

Delights to give good gifts

Delights in our response

Enjoyment
Thankfulness
Love
Universe full of
blessings
Gods creation is evidence of the
caring hand of the Creator
reaching out to secure the well-
being of his creatures, of a Father
extending a universe full of
blessings to his children. (Gordon
Spykman)
City of Angels
Delighting in Gods good creation

He slowly savours the moments taking delight

and joy in the simplest pleasures. He tastes the
sweetness of fruit for the first time; he lingers
as he smells the pleasant aroma of perfume; he
pauses to enjoy the sensation of hot water in
the shower; he delights in the embrace of a
woman. He takes the time to soak in the joy and
delight of these new experiences.

No recognition of Giver, no thanks!

Gratitude: The
Heartbeat of Pauline
Spirituality
Gratitude permeates Pauls life and holds a
prominent place in his letters to the young
churches. . . . Gratitude is the prospective
attitude that he carriesand expects
believers to carryinto their daily life in the
world. For Paul, thanksgiving marks the
dividing line between belief and unbelief,
between the obedient and disobedient heart.
It is in the expression of gratitude that one
truly honors God as the creator and Lord of
the world. On the other hand, a lack of
gratitude is a primary sin against God (Rom
1.21). - R. P. Meye
Heartbeat of Pauline
spirituality
For everything God created is good, and nothing
is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving ... (1 Tim 4.4).

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,

do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3.17)

If I take part in the meal with thankfulness,

why am I denounced because of something I
thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or
whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1
Cor 10.30-31)
All of life as a gift

We serve Christ by thankfully

receiving our life as a gift from his
hand (CT, par. 46).
Posture of gratitude
We are dependent children of a gracious
Father, and as children we receive all of
the goodness of the creation as a gift
from his hand. Our dependence upon him
places us in a posture of humility,
receptiveness, and gratitude; and that
posture shapes how we approach his
creation as well. The blessings of creation
are not things that we own to do with as
we please; they are gifts of grace that we
receive with thanksgiving and use in
ways that honor the Fathers rule over his
entire creation (Hielema, 151).
What thwarts
thankfulness?
Humanist story that pervades
Western culture
Humanistic Story
Secular: The Way of the (modern)
world: Or, Why Its Tempting to Live
As If God Doesnt Exist (Craig Gay)
Non-human creation just natural
processes to be exploited
Human life product of our
resourceful achievements
Squelches gratitude
What thwarts
thankfulness?
Humanist story that pervades
Western culture
Satiation of consumerism
Otherworldliness of Platonic
gospel
Turn your eyes upon Jesus . . .
 Sport and Competition

My Platonism and a degraded view of sport

Gods gift
A phys. ed. teachers question
What is it about sports and competition that
delights you?

God made me fast. When I run I feel his pleasure. .

. . its not just fun. To win is to honour him (Eric
My Delight in Gods Good
Gift of Competitive
Sports
Emotional intensity

Thrill of victory, agony of defeat

Way out of proportion with importance
Absorbed intensely and utterly in serious
pursuit of non-serious activity
Joy, emotional vibrancy spills into life
Play relativizes our over-seriousness toward
life, filling us with a spirit of joy and delight
that carries over into all aspects of our
existence.
My Delight in Gods Good
Gift of Competitive
Sports
Emotional intensity
Physical satisfaction
Athletes know the beauty of intensity
of effort, the motivation of pursuit of
goals, the feeling and being of fitness,
the expressiveness of movement, the
creativity of play, the excitement of
total involvement and the joy of sport
(Zuidema).
My Delight in Gods Good
Gift of Competitive
Sports
Emotional intensity
Physical satisfaction

Social bonding

Aesthetic enjoyment
Creativity of play
That perfect play
My Delight in Gods Good
Gift of Competitive
Sports
Emotional intensity
Physical satisfaction
Social bonding
Aesthetic enjoyment
Religious deepening

Delight turned upward into thanks

Educating for
thanksgiving . . .

Delight and joy in goodness of

Gods creation
Thankfulness and gratitude as
proper response
Struggle for shalom

For Wolterstorff, the goal of Christian

higher education is to energize
students for a certain way of being in
the world here and nowto encourage
them to struggle for shalom. . . .
Delight and Gratitude

The goal is to prepare students for life

and work of the Kingdom for struggling
for human flourishing . . . where delight
and joy are intrinsic features of right
human relationships with God, the
natural world, the self, and others.

Shalom involves recognizing in ourselves

that place where Gods goodness
finds its answer in our gratitude.

- Joldersma, on Wolterstorff
What is necessary if we
are to education for
gratitude?
Developing life of thanksgiving
Developing sense of delight and
gratitude for area you teach
Place in Gods world
Why brings delight, joy
Developing pedagogical ways to foster
delight and thanksgiving
Developing communal culture of
thanksgiving
Gratitude gives way to
groaning

We live in a strange world, a world which

presents us with tremendous contrasts. The
high and the low, the great and the small,
the sublime and the ridiculous, the beautiful
and the ugly, the tragic and the comic, the
good and the evil, the truth and the lie,
these all are heaped up in unfathomable
interrelationship. The gravity and the vanity
of life seize us in turn. Now we are
prompted to optimism, then to pessimism.
Man weeping is constantly giving way to
man laughing. The whole world stands in
the sign of humour, which has been well
described as a laugh in a tear (Bavinck).
A suffering and wounded
world
Shalom . . . is a command to humans
living here and now, in a fallen world, in a
society that is filled with pain, suffering,
and woundedness.
Shalom as a command is a call for us to
struggle to bring about human flourishing
in our community, our society, our world,
precisely because so much of humanity
cries out, suffers, is wounded.
Gratitude and
Groaning
Gratitude: Delight in good gifts
God has richly provided
Groaning: Many are shut out from
enjoyment of those gifts
Poverty
It is generally accepted that up to two billion
people . . . are now poor. The World Bank
describes the one billion of these people as
individuals who subsist on incomes of less than
$75 a year in an environment of squalor, hunger
and hopelessness. They are the absolute poor,
living in situations so deprived as to be below any
rational definition of human decency...It is a life at
the margin of existence. For the other billion who
are living slightly above this absolute poverty
level, life is nearly as joyless and has improved
little, it at all, through decades of development
efforts.
-Harvie Conn
Factors exacerbating
poverty

Growing population
Ecological issues

Unjust structures

Massive militarization
Not just poverty . . .
Not just the third world .
..
Social problems
Psychological disorders
Technological impoverishment
War
Grip of idols
Etc. etc. etc.
The non-human
creation also groans
We know that the whole creation
has been groaning as in the pains of
childbirth right up to the present
time. Not only so, but ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
groan inwardly as we wait eagerly
for our adoption, the redemption of
our bodies (Rom 8.22-23).
Orientation leads to
action
Gratitude Leads to
stewardship
Leads to action
Groaning
for justice
Victory of the gospel!

Joy, not overcome by pain

Hope, not despair

Action, not paralysis