Maybe there’s a gene for gratitude. Or maybe we just learn that, too. What do you think? My faith teaches that we should at all times be grateful for all things. But as with so many other characteristics, there just seem to be those people who find a reason to be grateful in most situations in life, and those who don’t. Of course, all the latest research on the human genome, all the analysis and commentary about it, make clear that it is unlikely there is a particular gene for gratitude just as it is unlikely there is a particular gene for any other personality trait or characteristic. Rather, there are likely many genes that play a contributing role in shaping various characteristics of our personality profile. They each contribute a piece to who we are, the nature of our prescriptions and predispositions. But, yes, there is more.
As you say, there is also that acculturating role played out by our families, community and culture. That is, to some undetermined extent, we also learn to be the way we are. But if neither your genes nor acculturation have pointed you in that direction—and especially if life has been unkind to you—then the call to have a grateful heart can seem taunting, unfair at the least, don’t you think?
But also consider this: many would attest that when you accept God’s Spirit of Love into your life, when He takes up residence in your soul, you increasingly experience that Love and express those characteristics consistent with it, including gratitude. It may be that He transforms you, that you become more like Him, or that you are more filled with Him and it is now He who is more often expressed through you. What I experience could be explained either way, I suppose, but the latter feels more right to me, personally and biblically. Regardless, there isn’t as much room for the old you to express your old failings or shortcomings, those aspects of you now more crowded out and increasingly fading. And then you feel so awed, loved and at peace, so much closer to God, that it seems that what remains of your old self now feels more grateful, too.
I have so much to be grateful for: family, friends, an inquisitive spirit, education, reason, success, travel, service, and relative security—but even more for the trust and peace that is increasingly mine in saying, yes, to the One who calls me, for a changing, consuming life following Him. Regardless of how you understand it, gratitude is a wonderful thing. Whether a genetic predisposition, a family or cultural legacy, or an expression of a consuming experience of God, it is to me nonetheless a gift of God. And I am grateful for it.
First written: January - June 2005
© Gregory E. Hudson 2007
