Advance Gratitude

Through my practice of the Ignatian Examen, I have grown accustomed to pausing in gratitude for graces and blessings received. I take this pause at the end of a day or a year or even a meaningful experience. But lately I have been wondering what it might be like to pause in gratitude for the graces and the blessings that will be.

It seems this kind of “advance gratitude” practice might work fairly well for me. After all, I am a planner by nature! The problem, however, is that my plans are usually for all the ways that something could go wrong. For example, prior to my summer journey to Indonesia, I researched every possible way the journey could have complications. I learned about every potential issue ranging from health to travel, and I planned for all of them. In fact, one might say I over-planned for all of them. I didn’t even allow myself to be truly grateful for the opportunity until I landed back in Texas at the completion of the journey. When I was finally able to review it all and see that none of my worries had come true and God instead had showered me and the experience with graces beyond my imagination, only then was I truly able to pause in gratitude.

Many times over the past few years, I have expressed my worries about what might go wrong to a friend only for that friend to respond, “But what if it all goes right? What if it’s more amazing than you could have ever imagined?” And out of habit every time, I responded with, “But what if it isn’t?”

Now I am coming to realize that planning for the possibility of failure is not a great way of proceeding. The amount of time and energy I spend worrying about what could go wrong keeps me from noticing all the wonderful things that are going right. It keeps me from having my eyes wide open to God alive and working in my midst.

So as I enter into what potentially could be a quite rocky fall, I want to make a concerted effort to go against my usual way of proceeding and practice some advance gratitude. Instead of making contingency plans for all pending disasters, I want to start each of my days praying the following.

Lord, thank you in advance:

• for the many incredible people made in your image that I will encounter today;
• for shifting my focus today to the good work being done all around me;
• for showing me today, through the examples of others, how I can contribute to positive change in my immediate community;
• for all the unexpected moments of joy and laughter I will have;
• for the calm reassurance you will provide when problems arise for which I have not fully planned;
• for bringing my attention today to all the moments (big or small) when things went well beyond my expectations;
• for all the love and grace you will offer me today that will open my heart to love others well.

I know that this advance gratitude practice will not be easy. It will require me to have faith that God will indeed deliver on all of these things. But there is something incredibly appealing right now about placing a little more faith in God and a little less faith in my contingency plans.

How can you practice advance gratitude? What difference might it make in how this upcoming season will unfold?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.