My daughter Haley ” is a student at Fuller Seminary and was part of a group recently that sponsored a panel of professors talking about money and stewardship. I asked her afterward for the three or four topics that were of greatest interest to those attending. “Guilt for what we have compared to the rest of the world” was near the top of the list.

A close friend of mine told me in response to a Sunday School lesson on gratitude that he was afraid to be grateful. Afraid to be grateful?

“I would love to be truly grateful to God for His blessings in my life. Instead” I am grateful in the same way I used to read books by flashlight under my covers when I was a kid. I murmur in my heart but secretly and quietly. I am afraid if I openly tell God how grateful I am He will say ” ‘I had not noticed how much you have and how little others have. Thank you for raising your hand and reminding me. I might need to even things up now.’”

Finally” ” another friend says he cannot be grateful without wanting to give more. Whatever he is giving is not enough to offset his feeling that God is somehow unsatisfied with whatever he is doing. He’s grateful but always with a qualifier.

Remember Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List? “I could have done more.” It haunts him…and my friend as well.

Fear. Guilt. Secrecy. Inadequacy. I don’t think that is what God desires.

Today is an opportunity to be merely grateful. Not guilty or fearful or concerned about doing more. Just grateful. Just content. Just blessed.