Dustin Crowe - The Grumblers Guide to Giving Thanks: Reclaiming the Gifts of a Lost Spiritual Discipline

2020 by DUSTIN CROWE

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Some content in chapter 1 was adapted from Dustin Crowe, A Theology of Thanksgiving, November 27, 2019, https://indycrowe.com/2019/11/27/a-theology-of-thanksgiving/.

Edited by Connor Sterchi

Interior and cover design: Erik M. Peterson

Cover illustration of flock of birds copyright 2019 by grop/Shutterstock (767358181).

Cover illustration of forest copyright 2019 by grop/Shutterstock (560104585).

All rights reserved for the above illustrations.

Author photo credit: College Park Church

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Crowe, Dustin, author.

Title: The grumblers guide to giving thanks : reclaiming the gifts of a lost spiritual discipline / Dustin Crowe.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers, 2020. | Summary: The Grumblers Guide to Giving Thanks examines the biblical foundations of gratitude and traces how it can reshape everyday Christian living. When we express gratitude in all things, we praise our Creator and get to know Him better. Learn how to practice thanksgiving in both simple and extraordinary ways--Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020017855 | ISBN 9780802419859 (paperback) | ISBN 9780802498779 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Gratitude--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Gratitude--Biblical teaching.

Classification: LCC BV4647.G8 C76 2020 | DDC 248.4--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017855

Originally delivered by fleets of horse-drawn wagons, the affordable paperbacks from D. L. Moodys publishing house resourced the church and served everyday people. Now, after more than 125 years of publishing and ministry, Moody Publishers mission remains the sameeven if our delivery systems have changed a bit. For more information on other books (and resources) created from a biblical perspective, go to www.moodypublishers.com or write to:

Moody Publishers
820 N. LaSalle Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60610

To Melissa

I thank God for the gift of you as my wife and your partnership as we learn to give thanks together.

Friend,

Thank you for choosing to read this Moody Publishers title. It is our hope and prayer that this book will help you to know Jesus Christ more personally and love Him more deeply.

The proceeds from your purchase help pay the tuition of students attending Moody Bible Institute. These students come from around the globe and graduate better equipped to impact our world for Christ.

Other Moody Ministries that may be of interest to you include Moody Radio and Moody Distance Learning. To learn more visit www.moodyradio.org and www.moody.edu/distance-learning.

To enhance your reading experience weve made it easy to share inspiring passages and thought-provoking quotes with your friends via Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and other book-sharing sites. To do so, simply highlight and forward. And dont forget to put this book on your Reading Shelf on your book community site.

Thanks again, and may God bless you.

The Moody Publishers Team

B e thankful for what youve got. It could be worse. For most of my life, this has been my approach to gratitude. Worse still, for most of my life, I actually believed this was a legitimate form of gratitude.

Having grown up in a working-class community in Appalachia, I know what it means to forgo things that other people might consider necessities. As adults, my husband and I have known similar scarcity, cycling through periods of un- and underemployment, both in ministry and outside it. But through it all, I never considered myself an ungrateful or grumbling person. After all, I could confidently open my Bible and affirm Philippians 4:11: I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself (CSB).

Yes, if there was anything I knew how to do, it was how to make do with little. Even more, I found a kind of odd satisfaction in doing it. God could count on me. I was one of His compliant children, the kind who doesnt make demands and knows how to accept whatever He gives.

It would seem, however, that surrendering to the limits of your circumstances is not the same as surrendering to God. Resignation is not the same as gratitude, and choking desire does not lead to thanksgiving. Because as the years passed, I found my heart growing more anxious and more inclined toward pessimism. I found myself offering up gratitude as a tax (as Dustin describes it in this book) rather than a gift. And slowly, I found myself struggling to do even this.

As I look back now, I can see that the reason I found contentment increasingly difficult was because Id been bypassing the work of true thanksgiving. Instead of naming and affirming the Giver, Id been content to forgo gifts and count it as gratitude. And so, for me at least, the journey to true thanksgiving began as God opened my eyes to His goodness, when I learned to see the world through the lens of His abundance rather than my scarcity.

Because just a few verses prior to Philippians 4:11, Paul calls believers to a perspective on the world that sees and seeks the goodness of God. In verses 8 and 9, he calls us to search out all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable. And when we do, when we look for the work of God in our lives, we cant help but find it, regardless of our circumstances. So that in learning to see the work of God in our lives, we cant help but be grateful. And even in our need, even in offering up our requests, we cant help but do so with thanksgiving (4:6).

But make no mistake, thanksgiving is a learned response. It does not come naturally, while grumbling does. Thats why Im happy to invite you to journey through this book, to find your way toward gratitude. Perhaps, like me, your struggle is rooted in scarcity; or maybe its rooted in consumption and having too much. But regardless of what makes us stumble along the road toward thanksgiving, the path is the same.

In giving attention to Gods goodness, in giving attention to all the ways He is present and at work in our lives, we cant help but thank Him.

HANNAH ANDERSON

Author, All Thats Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

T he short quiz below might help you test where you land on a spectrum from grateful to grumbling. As honest as you can be, highlight either (A) or (B) for each question.

1. Do you more often (A) remember Gods blessings in your life or (B) forget them?

2. When things dont go your way, do you typically respond (A) in gratitude or (B) by grumbling?

3. Do you see thanksgiving as (A) an essential spiritual rhythm for Christians or (B) something thats great to do when you remember it but unnecessary?

4. Would you say you tell God thanks (A) daily or (B) less than daily?