Gratitude and the Brain.

In the summer of 2017, Berkeley University did a study on the power of gratitude with 300 college students. These students were all suffering from some form of anxiety and depression. They were seeking out mental health counseling to help get the tools needed to overcome their challenges. The study took this group of 300 and broke them up into three categories.

The first group was to write letters of gratitude for three months. The letters were to be written once a week. They did not have to be shared with anyone. Just taking time to write out what they were grateful for on a weekly basis.

The second group was asked to write about their feelings, emotions, and negative stresses they were experiencing. Same goal. Each week write out these feelings for three months.

The third group did nothing but maintain the mental health counseling meetings.

The results were pretty remarkable. After three months, they scanned the brains of all the college students. They found that those who wrote the letters of gratitude were releasing toxins and negative emotions in their brains. The study wrote: "The gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude." There was activity in the brain that was causing their anxiety and depression to simmer. They concluded from this study:

1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions.

2. Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it.

3. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain.

There is so much good that comes from being grateful. Even science is explaining the positive results of being thankful.

In Luke's gospel, we see a person stand out among the crowd for being grateful. Maybe you know the story.

Ten people with leprosy. Ten people with the same skin disease. Same issue. Same problem. In that society, they were considered outcasts and left to beg. They were uninvited and forgotten. But, then they met Jesus. They cried out and begged for mercy and like Jesus always does, he sees, responds and heals. They head to the priest and on the way they are cleansed and healed.

All 10 healed.

All 10 healed of the same disease.

At the same time.

At the same place.

With the same problem.

Yet, only one returns to give God thanks. Ever notice that? Only one returned. And, when he returned he didn't just return...

He returned loudly.

He returned humbly.

He returned gratefully.

He returned singing and praising.

And, because of his gratitude, he received something that the other nine did not.

He received wholeness.

He received forgiveness.

He received resurrection and life.

Isn’t it remarkable how a posture of gratitude affects our mental and spiritual health?

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 we are reminded: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.

Clearly we were designed to be people who give thanks, as it both blesses God and brings health to our souls.

I think it's possible that when gratitude is a lifestyle, we experience God in ways others will not. That's what Jesus does both then and now. He looks for people who do not forget what he does. He then gives us far more than we can ask or imagine.