Someone to thank

About 18 months ago I was introduced to a friend of a friend at a wedding, and we got into a conversation about faith. When I asked whether he believed in God, he responded that although he’d been raised an atheist, he suspected it would ‘make sense’ if there was a God, since he was so grateful for life’s many blessings, and he’d like to have ‘someone to thank.’

For me, this was a fascinating insight; it’s often supposed that people only turn to God in times of need, in which case Christian faith can be explained away as a ‘crutch’ for the weak. Accepting this assumption tends to foster what I once heard amusingly described as ‘misery evangelism’ - the attempt to persuade people that they’re in dire straits without God, and had better turn to him for help.

But what if there are also ‘not-yet Christians’ who are seemingly doing just fine without God, and for whom a more attractive approach would be to ask whether we feel a sense of gratitude for life, and in which case whether there might indeed be someone to thank for the good gifts we’ve received?

We’ve been studying the book of James at St Michael’s, in which we’re reminded that life’s blessings don’t come from nowhere:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

(These words famously form the basis of that wonderful hymn of gratitude, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, which I sung with particular gusto at our own wedding!)

Well 18 months and one Alpha course later, I was thrilled to hear through our mutual friend this week that the guy I spoke to has now given his life to Jesus and is going to be baptised! So in our conversations with enquiring friends and family, why don’t we pray that gratitude would find its target, and more atheists would discover that there really is someone to thank.

Charlie