gratefulness is the way to increase your life volume…

Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it. – Ralph Marston

In the world of servers and disaster recovery, there is a term called “system state”, which in lay terms, means that the replication brings about the same settings and configuration that existed originally before the recovery occurs. Just as operating systems relate to the systems that run in an environment, so does my mind, heart, and spirit.

We operate in the natural in a dualistic, either/or, black/white, and good/bad way of relating to the systems environment where we exist.

What Jesus teaches is that we “seek first the Kingdom”—not allowing the natural, Satan operated/judgmental worldly way of living to take precedence. Cynthia Bourgeault calls this your GPS—God Positioning System…an operating system that controls the system state in which we live, move and have our day to day, moment to moment being.

This world is dominated by idealogical polarization, it is dualistic, judgmental, not unitive.

The Kingdom of God is united, like the Trinity. Jesus preached and preaches—love for neighbor, love for self, love for the world, even in its separated, sinful state.

So many times the relationship of the church to Christ is analogized through the marriage analogy.

I have found in our marriage that when I am the most critical and the most dissatisfied, when I am seeking to find the “what’s wrong” instead of what is worthy of praise and encouragement, my spiritual state reflects that posture.

Complaint, dissatisfaction, and judgment lead to a state of ungratefulness, and separation.

Gratefulness for all things we receive…for our life mates, for our work, for our church relationships, for the lessons we are being taught—this leads to more and more life giving system states.

Lord Christ—please endow me with a grateful system state, so that I am seeing things unitively, as part of your Kingdom’s whole, not separated in the way of the judgment driven world all around us.

I came that –you- may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10, Jesus

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