How to Join the Uncommon Normal Gratitude 2020 Challenge
It’s been there all along, but long months of uncertainty and social issues weighing raw and heavy have made it more obvious: we are discontent. Scrabbling for peace but coming up empty. Ready for change but not always sure of the right, the true, and the best ways to pursue it. Our lives feel more than shaken, our country far from perfect, and our purpose in it all a bit fuzzy. As we near the end of 2020, many of us might be apt to join a gratitude challenge to wrap a bow round the less-than-pretty before the end of the year. But this year I invite you to something more: a gratitude challenge that speaks to the down-beneath things that keep us fulfilling our purpose in our homes and neighborhoods.
I’m calling it the #uncommonnormalgratitude2020 challenge.
And I need it just as much as anyone else—because when gratitude enters, I can see everything more clearly. I know this because every day I script cursive letters into lines that give my thanks. This practice rewrites my day because it rewires my thinking. So often we find just what we are looking for, and when we look for things that cause the heart to swell with thanks, our vision enlarges. We see more, and more fully, and God in everything. And I want ever-enlarged vision to give me perspective on 2020.
Sometimes we try to force the outward appearance and shy away from what’s underneath. We focus on the repercussions of self-centered thinking that rip through our nation, but outward change will always be fleeting unless it ripples from change deep down on the inside. We mask our messy with a pretty smile, but a polished appearance leads to isolation instead of true connection. We intention to love our neighbors well, but our doing becomes simply more to do instead of an overflow of what God is stirring inside.
A perspective shift
It’s time to shift our focus to the deep-down things. To get real. To offer our broken with open hands to the only One who can heal soul-deep. To invite Him to touch where everything has gone awry on the inside so we can move forward, grace-filled and grateful, knowing who we are, whose we are.
“Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord,” I read in Psalm 55:22 TPT, “and measureless grace will strength you.” 2020 is weighty with cares and anxieties. In this midst of all of it, God’s offer to strengthen us on the inside remains. And gratitude positions our hearts to receive His gifts. We cannot receive what we cannot see.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised at the number of verses in the Bible that speak of gratitude. I’m reading through Psalms in The Passion Translation, and have discovered again and over again more encouragement to pause and give thanks.
But as for me, your strength shall be my song of joy.
Psalm 59:16 TPT
At each and every sunrise, my lyrics of your love will fill the air!
For you have been my glory-fortress,
a stronghold in my day of distress.
My heart, O God, is quiet and confident.
Psalm 57:7-9 TPT
Now I can sing with passion your wonderful praises!
Awake, O my soul, with the music of his splendor-song!
Arise, my soul, and sing his praises!
My worship will awaken the dawn,
greeting the daybreak with my songs of praise!
Wherever I go I will thank you, my God.
Among all the nations they will hear my praise songs to you.
So I’m thanking you with all my heart,
Psalm 56:12 TPT
with gratitude for all you’ve done.
I will do everything I’ve promised you, Lord.
With God on my side I will not be afraid of what comes.
Psalm 56:4 TPT
The roaring praises of God fill my heart,
and I will always triumph as I trust his promises.
I will live enthroned with you forever!
Psalm 61:7-8 TPT
Guard me, God, with your unending, unfailing love.
Let me live my days walking in grace and truth before you.
And my praises will fill the heavens forever,
fulfilling my vow to make every day a love gift to you!
A rhythm of gratitude is essential to missional living because to love our neighbors well we must first truly see them. Gratitude open our eyes, softens our hearts, invites us to find purpose in everyday moments. It invites us to show up, to be real, to gift our availability. Gratitude, too, grows our awareness of God and how near He is. We become more sensitive to His gentle guidance through our day.
Where gratitude grows, selfishness decreases.
Where gratitude is cultivated, joy increases.
Gratitude starts within and then changes us on the outside. As the ripples continue to expand, the world around us is affected too. So for our families, our neighbors, our communities, and our nation—let’s choose the path of gratitude.
As Caesar Kalinowski shares in Bigger Gospel: Learning to Speak, Live, and Enjoy the Good News in Every Area of Life, “Our struggles reveal our hearts.” He goes on to say that “most of us think the way to stop sinning is to change our behavior. However, if behind every sin is a lie about God, then what really needs to change is what I am believing in my heart.”
About the gratitude challenge
So here is where we will start the #uncommonnormalgratitude2020 challenge—soaking in and offering our thanks for who God is. From here we will move to what is true of us because of what is true of God. As we expand our focus from inward to beyond, we will look next at ways we can choose intentional gratitude for our families and homes. To conclude the challenge, we will tap into gratitude for our neighborhoods.
To go along with the gratitude challenge, I will be doing a 4-part series on the blog and podcast to further unpack the gratitude challenge categories. If you’re not yet part of my email tribe, I invite you to join me to be sure you won’t miss a post.
How to get the most out of the challenge
- Save the below gratitude prompt graphic to your device
- Participate (on any social media platform) in the challenge either with a photo, written response, or both
- Use the hashtag #uncommonnormalgratitude2020 on all your posts
- Follow the #uncommonnormalgratitude2020 hashtag to see others’ posts
- Invite a few friends to join you in the challenge
- Read or listen to the accompanying blog/podcast posts
As we dig deep into gratitude together this November, I pray we will find that gratitude is not something we want to focus on just one time a year. A lifestyle of gratitude so deeply ties into missional living because when we live grateful, we hold open our hands and soft our expectations. We give God more room to be God and choose to be vulnerable and authentic about our own imperfections.
Begin Within: A Gratitude Series
I am so very excited to share that I am launching a collaborative series on November 1st to encourage you to lean into gratitude year-round. Every week, a different writer will share with you a story of how a practice a gratitude has shaped their life. To begin the series, I will share a piece by Gwendolyn Smith that is teeming with super helpful tips on how to practice gratitude. Her words are a treasure and I am so excited to share them with you on November 1st. If you are interested in contributing to Begin Within: A Gratitude Series, visit here for the submission guidelines.
Before we pray, I’ll leave you with a worship song medley I pray greatly encourages your heart.
God, we choose to worship You—to let our hallelujah arise within us—no matter what goes on around us. We choose to look for the gift in the things, even the hard things, we face. We choose to see that You are good, that You are present, and that You pave a way before us. We ask You for enlarged vision and soft and surrendered hearts so we can truly see You, who we are in You, and how You see those around us. In Your holy and precious name, Lord, we pray. Amen.
P.S. Did you know The Uncommon Normal is also a podcast? Tune in on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or Spotify.
Read FREE with Kindle Unlimited or purchase on Kindle ($3.99) or as a paperback ($5.99). Group study questions included.
