For People with Bishop Rob Wright
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
#8 We Believe!
A man turns back to say thank you—and discovers a deeper kind of healing. That small pivot in Luke 17:11-19 launches a wide‑open conversation about gratitude as action, the difference between being cured and being made whole, and why a daily practice of thanks can change your chemistry, your relationships, and your resilience.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about gratitude. They discuss starting prayer with thanksgiving, naming three to ten blessings a day, and turning down the noise long enough to notice the quiet mercies that keep us afloat. Listen in for the full conversation.
Read For Faith, the companion devotional.
So there's a miracle that you and I can co-create with God each and every day. And that is our mental and physical chemistry already exists. That if we put the emphasis on gratitude, then all the lights flash and all the bells ring, and somehow uh God gave us all those gifts, and now we're co-creating with God a life of gratitude, and it benefits not only us, right? But it benefits all the people that we're around.
Melissa:Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. I'm your host, Melissa Rau, and this is a conversation inspired by For Faith, a weekly devotion sent out every Friday. You can find a link you can find a link to this week's For Faith and a link to subscribe in the episode's description. This week is number eight of our We Believe series, and Bishop is called this week's "We Believe That Gratitude Heals."
Bishop Wright:Yeah, Melissa. So this this week is sort of installment number eight. It's we believe that gratitude heals. It's based on Luke 17, verses 11 through 19. Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one returned to give thanks and praises to God. Now all ten lepers were healed, but Jesus decrees something additional over the one that returns. As this formerly chronically ill man is thanking and praising God for his new healing, Jesus interrupts him and says, This go on your way, your faith has made you well. Apparently, then there are at least two dimensions to faith trust in God and thanks to God. Apparently, there is a unique wellness reserved only for the grateful.
Melissa:Okay. So I have to say, I believe this too.
Bishop Wright:Yeah.
Melissa:I think practicing gratitude helps me keep things in perspective. Yet this one was hard for me a little bit. So I wouldn't challenge, I you know.
Bishop Wright:I love a good challenge.
Melissa:Well, here's what it's like, who's to say that the lepers who were healed, like all 10 of them, like just because the one came back, who's to say the other nine weren't grateful?
Bishop Wright:Yeah, well, we don't know that they're grateful. And in fact, it maybe even some people may read the story and say that's a little unfair because Jesus tells them uh to go on your way and show yourself to the priests. And maybe we'll just say that the other nine are really like radically obedient, right? So they go straight to the temple, right? I mean, so that's fair to say. That's fair to say. But but but even when you say that, even if you tell the story that way, it is remarkable, though, that this healing penetrated this man's uh heart and soul so deeply that his feet uh made a U-turn. And uh and he had to go back. So I I think that however we we sort of frame it up, it is remarkable that he felt so grateful that his gratitude became actions uh and words. And I think that's what we lift up, really. Yeah, maybe these fellas, there's no doubt these other nine folks uh, you know, were restored to the community. Uh they were no longer, you know, chronically ill. Um, you know, they enjoyed new well-being, you know, and were now included in the family, so to speak. I mean, they were not outcasts, they left the leper colony behind and off they went. Yeah, of course they probably felt like, wow, hallelujah. Wasn't that phenomenal? But again, I want to argue there's something about going back and saying thank you.
Melissa:Yeah.
Bishop Wright:Um, and forget what I say. Um, Jesus seems to say, he said, he uses a different word for him. He says, is that, you know, uh, this man is so so overwhelmed by gratitude that according to the lesson, he's he's on his hands and knees and he's thanking God and praising the Lord and all this sort of stuff. Jesus sort of interrupts him, says, get up, right? Your faith has made you well. So he does this kind of thing. So I I want to argue uh gently, maybe there's a there's a new wellness or a separate wellness that this fella gets uh that the other nine perhaps didn't get. Um, but I I want to make, I want to argue, well, look, let's think about it this way. Uh uh a truckload of doctors uh and a boatload of psychologists say that uh a people who uh live a life that looks like it is hateful, uh, looks like it has gratitude, uh, looks like there's an abiding thanksgiving uh to their lives. Uh they have better physical and psychological, mental, emotional well-being, and outcomes. So there's something about this.
Melissa:Okay, so I'm gonna challenge one more thing. Good. So here's here's what I'm thinking. So there's a big difference between God doing miracles and us doing miracles. Like I think God does the miracles through us. And I think sometimes we expect the people through whom we might be healing or helping to heal, thank us. And then if they don't thank us, then therefore they're not grateful. And yet, was it our miracle or was it God's? To whom is a person grateful? Charged, I guess, to be grateful grateful toward. Does that make sense? Well, yeah, I think so.
Bishop Wright:Um, uh, you know, let's stick with the story.
Melissa:Well, that's what I'm saying. Like this guy, I mean, how do we know that those people who were healed weren't grateful to God and just didn't turn around to thank Jesus?
Bishop Wright:Well, well, there we are. So somehow their healing was precipitated by Jesus.
Melissa:Yeah.
Bishop Wright:So Jesus sort of some shows up in in close proximity to their miracle, right? So, I mean, if you want to debate that, we can debate that. And I think it's a fair debate. I I don't know. I I just know that this one fella was really, he drew a straight line between Jesus and his healing.
Melissa:Yeah.
Bishop Wright:Right?
Melissa:And Jesus said, give it to God.
Bishop Wright:And Jesus, exactly. Jesus, Jesus, it seems interesting, doesn't it? Because Jesus doesn't seem to want to interrupt, right? This man is thanking God and praising God, and Jesus doesn't say, Hey, no, no, fella, you're talking to me right now. Jesus doesn't do that in this story, right? So Jesus is really respectful of this man's moment of gratitude, thanksgiving, and praise. Uh, and then Jesus extends it. So, so when you take the move that you made, what occurs to me is that Jesus in this story is the author of this miracle, or at least a conduit for it, right? And I I hope that you and I are, in so much as we can be, uh, conduits uh for miracles that happen all around us. I hope that you and I are committed uh to living lives and others living lives that facilitate miracles in other people's lives, whether it's a small miracle, major miracle, it could be anything. Who knows? But I hope that that's the stance, posture that we're taking in life. Uh and then there's this other miracle that I think is also shows up in the story, at least to me. And that is the miracle that you and I have within our control to make every day. So the miracle, and this is what the doctors and psychologists are saying. So there's a miracle that you and I can co-create with God uh each and every day. And that is uh our mental uh and physical chemistry already exists. That if we put the emphasis on gratitude, then all the lights flash and all the bells ring. Uh, and somehow uh God gave us all those gifts, and now we're co-creating with God a life of gratitude, and it benefits not only us, right? But it benefits all the people that we're around. It's a buoyancy. Jesus called it wellness. Wellness we know is shalom, which is peace, right? And we know that the peace that God gives, the world can't take away. So now that peace is also resilience. So then if I have a life of gratitude, I'm better prepared to deal with the catastrophes that somehow happen in life, seasons of depression, sorrow, all the trouble. Somehow I have a counter agent within me. And so there are miracles that God does, and who knows? Uh we can't uh we can't control them. Um, they are random. Um, you know, 10 got healed. How many more were at the leper colony that needed to be healed? We don't know. Jesus walks through Galilee, not everybody gets healed. Um, 5,000 are fed on a particular day. My guess is that there were 25,000 more who could have done with a free lunch, you know. Um so the story says what it says, but then it says this other piece too, which is the miracles that you and I have the power to create ourselves because of the gift of being made in the image of God. And and and that really excites me when I think about it. It, you know, one really crass example I can give uh to where uh the uh changing the emphasis in life can really turn your life around. Uh, you know, I grew up poor and you know, started to make some money in my life and then was really happy about that and be and really became a spender, right? Not not sort of uh dangerously so, but I became a spender. I saw things I wanted to buy, I bought them. And with this new financial power I had, it was really exciting. And then I realized that all that was fun and all that was great. And then, you know, and after sort of taking some financial uh literacy classes and doing some other things and having a lot of kids, which will also get you uh get you thinking differently about uh financial resources, uh uh after a period of time and a reversal of that spending paradigm, I became a saver. And and now I see things through the lens of saving, same guy, uh same income, uh different emphasis. Paradigm shifted. And and and that changed my life really. Uh, and even though my wife and I have been fortunate to have two incomes, uh, we have uh for the majority of our lives, uh I would say 98% of our life together, 28 years, we have lived on one income. And um, and and so when I think about um this idea of shifting from wherever we find ourselves right now to gratitude, uh for me it's it's very poignant. It's about shifting away from one paradigm into another paradigm that will better serve you, uh, that will create some wholeness and some strength in your life.
Melissa:Well, that wholeness is so important to me in my life. I love that theme. I'm curious, though, about the shift, Bishop.
Bishop Wright:Yeah.
Melissa:The shift towards something new requires us to lay or shed some skin, right? So what does that look like?
Bishop Wright:Well, we know that all of this stuff is not magic, right? In some ways, you know, even though we're talking about a miracle story, this is not magic, right? Um, you know, you know, I think what we we um it's about shifting focus. I mean, the the fellows, the the nine who went on to the temple, their focus was on uh, as Jesus told them to do, was about going to the to the temple. Uh, the one leper who came back to Jesus, his focus was on moving toward Jesus. And so where's your focus? I mean, and what do you want? I I teach classes all the time. I just got back from San Diego. I'm going to Massachusetts tomorrow. And uh, you know, I I I love to preach about um, you know, the fifth chapter of John, where Jesus asked the man who was paralyzed, uh, what do you want? And of course, uh, the Spice Girls help us with that. What tell me what you want, what you really, really want. And so if we're if we're sick and tired of being sick and tired, if we're sick and tired of living a life that is really flat when it in terms of gratitude, which means it's really flat in terms of seeing, because the truth of the matter is that we're immensely blessed. Uh the truth of the matter is if we took up a practice by day, uh to name three things, five things, ten things that we we count as blessings, that we're that we're grateful to God for, if we shift our focus, turn the news off for a little while, turn the radio off in the car for a little while, uh, let the phone call go to uh to voicemail and just talk to God for that time, uh we would see in those practices how we begin to make the shift in the paradigm. And so it's just a matter of emphasis. Um, some people like the journal, that's cool. Some people like to just uh think, that's cool. Some people like to take notes on their phone, that's cool. Whatever it takes, um, here's what I suggest. I suggest starting off your prayer life with Thanksgiving before you get to uh telling God what you need. I I think in, you know, you think about it for just a second. It might be considered a little bit of a rude prayer life to start off with uh what you need first.
Melissa:Exactly.
Bishop Wright:Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe we're struggling about the things we need because we fail to appreciate what we already have, right? And so, God, you've given me, you know, I start off with, Lord, you kept me safe last night. Uh, I woke up under a roof this morning, God. Uh, I can blink my eyes and my heart didn't stop working last night, God. Uh, you know, I mean, I mean, you know, it sounds, you know, you know, cute for some and maybe pedestrian for others, but I mean, these are this is the essence of life. I mean, people laying on their deathbed today would give anything to have another night in the arms of their loved one, you know, a day more of heartbeats, a day more of eyes blinking, a day more of speech to say thank you. And so, and so, you know, I'm 61, moving into 62. And so I'm in that in that chapter of life where you really have got a lot more in the rearview mirror than you do in the windshield. And, you know, so I I'm just I'm increasingly aware of all these blessings and how my life at a twist or a turn at an intersection could have gone down a road and perhaps I could have got stuck somewhere. But I have some portion of faith, I have some portion of hope today, I have some portion of good sense today. Uh, and so wow, so much to be thankful for. And it's not that I don't have hardships, I do. It's not that everything is solved in my life. It's not. It's not that I haven't had profound disappointments in life, I absolutely have, right? But but do we just let those things have full sway in our life? Or can we live in what I think is the creative tension of uh there are some parts that are tough, but by God, there are some things that have been just, I'm so grateful for. And thank God for those things.
Melissa:Thank God for those things. Because again, we got to talk about the healing part, and we're wrapping this up here. But that I don't know that we can be whole, Bishop. I don't know that we can heal without being grateful.
Bishop Wright:I completely agree. I completely agree. Um, I think it is a path to healing. Um, you know, that that paradigm shift means, I mean, I, you know, as as bishop, I get to hear a lot of other people's stories. And I can tell you in one, in one way or another, I hear this paradigm shift. I hear a divorce people say when they're ready to get remarried, they find another someone to love uh and and to love uh and be loved by. It's like, thank God I found love. I thought my life was over. I mean, it was it was in the trash bin. And thank God. I mean, it just a shift, just a radical shift, um, which provides a buoyancy, you know, uh in life. And so, yeah, I think it is the way uh for us to make our way. And I think, look, I think there's nothing uh as infectious uh wherever we find ourselves as someone who is uh really riding that that wonderful hot air thermal uh of uh of good news in their life and gratitude.
Melissa:Indeed. Bishop, thank you. We're grateful for you, our listeners. So thank you so much for listening to For People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright or by visiting www.forpeople.digital. Please subscribe, leave a review, and we'll be back with you next week.