The Power of Gratitude

Do you have seven minutes to change your life?

Really.

This is one of the more powerful and important videos I’ve seen in a long time. It’s about happiness. In particular, it’s about the connection between gratitude and happiness.

As it turns out, expressing gratitude is one of the most effective ways to increase happiness. Which is what makes this video powerful – not the idea itself, which we’ve explored in other places on this blog – but because the good folks at Soul Pancake actually took research about the connection between expressing gratitude and levels of happiness and replicated the experiment and filmed it for us to see.

Watch it, and see if you can make it through without shedding at least one tear at the beautiful sight of the folks in the experiment telling an important person in their life how grateful they are for them.

The power of this truth shouldn’t be surprising to Christians. We live in a faith tradition that overflows with wisdom about the importance and potency of gratitude. Consider how frequently the Apostle Paul, for instance, begins his letters with an expression of gratitude for the community to whom he writes.

“I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world,” Paul writes to the Christians in Rome (Rom. 1:8).

“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus,” Paul writes in similar fashion to the folks in Corinth, “for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 1:4-7).

And to the Philippians: “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3-5).

Part of this is simply that Paul knows and follows the conventions for writing letters in his day, where offering a word of thanksgiving near the outset of the letter was expected. And yet each letter is specific to its audience, speaking a particular word of gratitude that not only commended them but also increased Paul’s joy.

And so we know that expressing gratitude brings a double joy, enriching both the listen and the speaker. We know this, but we don’t always do it.

So go ahead and take seven minutes to watch the video. You won’t be disappointed. It’s moving, it’s poignant, and it’s true. And then, after watching the video, take a few minutes to tell someone why he or she matters to you. Pick up the phone, take the time to write out a note, send an email, put it on your Facebook page. You’ll bring a measure of joy to the one who thank…and to you.

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