41 Comments

Diana, any chance you have heard of a book and documentary by Eric Metaxas called Letter to the American Church? The Republican Party in Joplin MO is showing the movie daily this week and I am alarmed at the book’s deceptive inclusion of Bonhoeffer’s example as a call to as for the American church. Any comment?

(PS I was in Springfield last weekend to hear your talks at Drury; thank you!)

Expand full comment

Thanks for the Grateful Day video.

Beautiful!

Expand full comment

Thank you for great insights. A poem arrived on New Year's day this year, your insights fit each stanza:

What am I?

You are the salt of the world.

Am I a grain of salt?

Or just a molecule of sodium and chlorine

created at creation?

Or one of perhaps 1022 in that grain?

How much of me is required

now?

To make a difference

here?

You are the light of the world.

Am I a wave

or a particle?

How do I make a difference without mass?

Can I live in the quantum of both/and?

May I bring light, heat, illumination, or what I am here for.

Refracting, reflecting, diffracting, shining

Jesus

for the world.

Unless a grain falls in the ground

How do I die to bring fruit?

First comes the root

Exploring your depths,

Orientating the shoot to your light

in and through the warm damp dark

May I be known by stem, leaf, form, blossom or fruit.

When autumn comes may others find

your colours shining.

Expand full comment

Salt gives me higher blood pressure

Expand full comment

I don’t add salt because of high blood pressure.

Expand full comment

Just thinking about being salty and not bland when bringing our faith into political discourse, I believe you would all enjoy this podcast. https://youtu.be/e3XV0ulAhgk?feature=shared

Expand full comment

I encounter lots of secular folk who practice gratitude. That’s great, as far as it goes. But can one be grateful for something without being grateful to someone?

Expand full comment
author

Omigosh! YES!

Even if someone doesn't believe that God is the ultimate Giver, certainly the Universe gives gifts. The Earth gives gifts. Friends give gifts. Your parents gave you gifts. Theism isn't necessary at all for gratitude!

That's one of the great things about it -- gratitude can unify us all.

Expand full comment

I expect that my practice of gratitude would be enhanced if I explicitly named the source of these gifts, both proximate and ultimate.

Expand full comment
author

I don't judge anyone's gratitude -- and I'm grateful for everyone on a journey of deep love, empathy, and compassion!

Expand full comment

So good!! Thank you!!

Expand full comment

No one can ever accuse me of not using enough salt :) all you need is salt, butter, love, and gratitude.

Expand full comment

I loved this and believe it wholeheartedly. I have been keeping a gratitude journal for years and know and feel the difference it has made. I absolutely loved your explanation of pepper and salt in cooking and how it applies to our souls.

Expand full comment

I learned in the last two years from a chef that salt is not a spice and how it works. I had the science! Earlier today I learned that gratitude is the salt of my soul. This is my interpretation in short, of this lovely and meaningful offering. Now my theology and science are working together in a new and clearer way. I was very grateful this last week as Hurricane Helene came on shore and barreled up through GA toward Macon that I live in a retirement community that put out good guidelines for hurricane prep. including a way to feed a couple hundred people on Friday/post storm. I was not at all feeling well Wed- and on -yet I am grateful that I had/have excess to medical help on site if needed. and etc. etc. Macon wasn't without some problems but we faired better than many other places even in Macon. This 'old salt' is grateful . Oh and we lived in Houston at one time and we had some experiences with some memorable storms. Peace to all. My prayers go out to all affected by the storm .

Expand full comment

Beautiful and I loved the video. Thank for that.

Expand full comment

So much appreciate this insight. I’ve been thinking about losing one’s saltiness, or the lukewarm Laodiceans who seemed to have lost something too. I have the conservative evangelicals in my brain troubling me with the possibility that i just fit too well into the world. But this idea of salt bringing out one’s truest self leads me to think that maybe my longing for justice in the world, for protecting the vulnerable, for peace—maybe that is my salt and I, too, am not losing that saltiness. Salt is not an irritant to sting the unbelievers’ hearts, but a healing hope for the upside down world of the Sermon on the Mount to be realized.

Expand full comment
Sep 29Liked by Diana Butler Bass

Thank you for sharing The Grateful Day video. I had not seen it before and it is beautiful.

Expand full comment
author

I watch it whenever I feel down.

Expand full comment

Grateful for you, Diana. That you continually remind us not only of the greatness of God, but of God's goodness toward the whole of creation, of which we are only a part. And that we can co-create with God through acts of love that flow through us. I am a member of Gratefulness.org, the non-profit founded by Brother David, and it is a blessing to everyone who logs on to it.

Expand full comment

"practice gratitude" - Pay attention to all the acts of love God provides in every moment.

Beautiful words. Thank you Diana.

Expand full comment