The freedom of gratitude

"All of life is a gift, and we grow to be like Jesus as we embrace this gift. Now, growth in character occurs to the degree that we accept being forgiven as a greater gift than life itself. In light of this gift of forgiveness and life, what am I to be? I am to be free. The fruit of grattitude is freedom from death and its countless cousins- fear, shame, estrangement, etc. And what grows from freedom? A playful, curious connectedness to the unveiling of new grace in pleasure and in sorrow. TO those who have eyes of gratitude, all senses are freed to take in and participate in the smallest and most obscure as well as the most panormaic displays of beauty. Gratitude also frees the heart to suffer fury against that which mars beauty. Gratitude brings an imminent passion to all endeavors of life." Dan Allender Leading With A Limp

There isn't a virtue as overlooked as gratitude. What is Christ trying to teach us with his story of forgivness towards a man's large debt, if it isn't the idea of gratitude and how it should affect how we live? I never realized how ungrateful I was for the things I have been given until I lost my chance to express my gratitude through love and forgiveness towards someone, a chance I will never get again. In my failure to live out the gospel I am forced to embrace the gospel. A Jimmy Eat World song say, "Our time is borrowed and spent too freely. Every minute we have needs to be made up, but how?" We "have" nothing. We own nothing and yet act as if we deserve everything with no gratitude for anything. In the light of your gratitude for the working of the gospel in your life, lavish love and forgiveness on those around you, pour it out without hinderance or thought because you may not get another chance and you can't take to heaven what was made to spend.