"Please and Thank You"
 

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY
 
 

I read the following article in this morning's Sunday paper. It has such a resonance within which grips with a force that "will not let me go".  When this occurs, I realize that it is a PRIME issue  and is, to me, then NECESSARY that the message and its impact be imparted to you.
 
 

"Courtesy is like an unexpected slice of cheesecake in the fridge: you don't find it all the time, but when you get a little, you sure are pleased.
 

"These days, a taste of 'niceness' can be hard to come by.  Customer service is old-school ethics.  Random smiles belong to antiquity and a simple 'How do?' may inspire brow-raised looks of 'Do I know you'?
 

"Author David McCullough [president of San Francisco Theological Seminary] says 'enough is enough'.  In his book 'Say Please, Say Thank You, The Respect We Owe One Another', he offers suggestions on how to return civility and kindness to our lives.
'The neglect of courtesy,' says he, 'leads to the collapse of a community.' Say 'please'.
 

"McCullough calls this 'respecting the freedom of others'.  'Please' allows for choice.  It asks for folks to do something for you as it pleases them.  'If I can't take half a second to say 'please', I don't deserve to have anyone do anything for me, except perhaps have a judge lock me up for reckless use of a dangerous ego'.

"Say 'thank you'.  If you ignore the importance of a thank you, once again you need an ego check.  You allow your 'almighty self-importance' to blind you to the fact that you are 'completely dependent on others and every achievement has been won with team effort'."

 NOT TO SAY "THANK YOU", THEN, IS TO SAY TO THE "GIVER":

"I AM ENTITLED":  THE ULTIMATE EGO-TRIP.
 
 

I believe the root of "thanklessness" to be one of the ultimate and foremost sins against God.
"Thank you" unexpressed is 'thank you" unheard...a hardener of TWO hearts:  the giver's and the receiver's.  It is divisive, arrogant, unkind, uncivil and, most of all, UNGODLIKE.
 

Christians who fall prey to "overspiritualization" - a religious spirit -  seem to feel that to thank God is enough.  THAT IS DUALITY:  seeing the 'messenger' apart from the Message.  God DOES have HANDS:   messengers.  And Jesus certainly  seemed to agree.  He said to the one out of ten  who returned to HIM to give thanks - and that is about the ratio of "thankers" in my experience I yet see today:  "Where are the other nine?"
 

Spirituality is nothing else but the DOING, the LIVING OUT, the EXPRESSION of THANKFULNESS in EVERYTHING, even - or maybe ESPECIALLY - the smallest, seemingly insignificant deeds. For it says, with full, heartfelt recognition  :
"Thank you, for I am unworthy."

There IS no spirituality without that  "heart attitude".