Devotional from Pastor Dave August 16, 2023

Gratitude or Grabitude

I’ve enjoyed learning what some of your favorite Bible stories are and preaching on them this

summer. Many of them are some of my own favorite Bible stories, too. One of them is the story

of the healing and conversion of the enemy army commander Naaman. The story is found in 2

Kings 5.

Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army, one of ancient Israel’s enemies. But even

though he was a mighty warrior, he had become afflicted with a skin condition called leprosy in

the Bible. One of the young Israelite girls he had captured served Naaman’s wife. One day, she

said she wished he could be cured by the prophet back home. Well, eventually, her wish came

true. Naaman made his way to the prophet Elisha, who told him to wash seven times in the

Jordan River and his skin would be like that of a newborn baby. Naaman was expecting a more

dramatic demonstration, but reluctantly he dipped in the river the requisite number of times,

and he was healed.

This experience led him to profess his faith in the Lord God of Israel. It also led him to express

his gratitude to Elisha. He offered to pay Elisha for healing him, but the prophet steadfastly

refused. God’s grace is not for sale. So Naaman made his way back home, with a couple of pick-

up truckloads of Israelite dirt as a keepsake along with the prophet’s preemptive pardoning of

his participation in the required religious rites back home.

That’s normally where the story ends. And it’s a great story of God’s grace toward an outsider,

an enemy even, and of his response of faith and gratitude. But the story goes on to tell of

Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, who thought Naaman got off too easy and should have paid up. So he

chased after Naaman and told him that Elisha had changed his mind, that there was company

coming and they could use the extra funds. Naaman was happy to oblige and gave Gehazi

double what he asked, which Gehazi planned to keep to himself. When Gehazi got back to the

city, Elisha asked him where he’d been. He lied and said he’d been nowhere. Just then, the

leprosy that was Naaman’s transferred to Gehazi.

The Gehazi episode makes this already great story even greater. It becomes a study in contrasts

and a reversal of fortune. The enemy outsider Naaman receives an unexpected blessing, while

the intimate insider Gehazi receives an unexpected curse. And what separates them is not so

much their insider or outsider status, but their behavior. One is grateful, the other is greedy.

I can’t remember where I first heard the term “grabitude,” but it was described as the opposite

of gratitude. Gratitude is being grateful for all that God has given you and all that God has done

for you, but grabitude is always wanting more. Like biblical leprosy, grabitude has a way of

getting under your skin and festering and eating away at you, whereas gratitude has a way of

enlarging your soul.

Where do you see an attitude of grabitude in your life? And how might you grow in your

practice of gratitude?