James 24:7

When I first became pastor at North River Community Church, I was invited to the home of Robin and John for dinner.  Robin was one of the sweetest, most loving people I have ever known.

She was also one of the funniest.

Robin was most funny when she was not trying to be funny.  She was one of those folks who was just offhandedly funny.

Several people were at Robin and John's that night.  Kelly and Lori were there and Robin started bragging on Lori's skills at showing hospitality.  After providing a litany of Lori's hospitality skills with examples of her skills in practice, Robin paused for a split second and said: "Why Lori is a real hospitalian!"

I thought that was a great word and a real compliment to Lori because it suggested that Lori was not only good at demonstrating acts of hospitality, Lori was someone whose character was marked by hospitality.

In Robin's eyes, "hospitality" was not just something that Lori did, "hospitality" was something that Lori was.

Sadly Robin passed away in September, 2006.  However, much of Robin has stayed with me including her word "hospitalian."

The word has stayed with me because it is such a neat way of describing what happens when someone has passed from just performing certain kinds of moral actions to becoming a person whose very being is marked by those actions.  

For me, the word "hospitalian" opens up a world of possibilities as we think about what it takes to become a whole person and uncovering the meaning of a "well-lived life." 

Following Robin's lead, I have created another word that may serve to describe a kind of character that marks a "life well-lived." 

That word is "gratitudian."

Gratitudian

Gratitudians are people whose lives, whose character, whose very being is marked by gratitude. 

Gratitudians are those who have made (and who continue to make) the practice of expressing gratitude such a part of their lives that they have become the very embodiment of that virtue. 

A gratitudian is someone who is graceful, gracious, grace-filled, congratulatory, gratuitous, and yes...grateful.   Such words suggest elegance, kindness, a propensity toward showing favor, a willingness to honor others when such honor is due, and a habit of offering good to others without expectation of reward or recompense.

Gratitudians are large-souled people.  They are maganimous, unselfish, generous toward others and free of pettiness and resentment.

Gratitudians become themselves by means of grace.  The word itself suggests the necessity of grace.  After all, the word "gratitude" is derived from the Latin word for grace, "gratis." 

However, claiming that grace is necessary to becoming a gratitudian does mean that there is nothing one can do to become such a person.   

To become a gratitudian one must practice the skills necessary to becoming such a person and we only know what skills to practice because we have been told by God what they are. 

We only know the practices because of grace.  The hard line between doing (practicing) and receiving (grace) is softened as we realize that....That we have any idea what we may do to become whole is itself a matter of grace.

Practices are gifts.

The central practice of gratitudians is, as you might expect, gratitude.  Becoming a person whose character is marked by gratitude (i.e. a "gratitudian") is a matter of expressing, showing, displaying gratitude.

You might say that the way to goal is the goal itself.

The way and the destination are one.

Or, to borrow a quote attributed to Mahatma ("Large-Souled") Ghandi..

"Be the change you wish to see."

More tomorrow.