Daily D – John 6:23
Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
JOHN 6:23 (CSB)
John 6:11
How can you get more people to open your emails? According to some articles from those who study such things, your email should have a catchy subject line. For example, I received this one yesterday from a friend’s ministry: “When there’s no more barrel bottom to scrape . . .”
How about this one from Jim Denison and The Denison Forum which should be mandatory reading every day: “How the church can bless the culture into spiritual awakening.”
One more from Carey Nieuwhof: “What would you do with an extra 15 productive hours each week?”
You can see how this is a serious improvement over “Upcoming events and plans.”
Once someone opens your email because of your clever subject line, you need to get their attention immediately. Thou shalt not begin with something staid and boring like, “Greetings,” or “Hello.” Liven things up a bit. For example, I begin almost all of my emails with, “Howdy!” People expecting Greetings or Hello quickly scan past these words to get to the heart of the email and more eagerly hit Delete than those with a catchy greeting.
Take a look at that last paragraph. On the page where in the app where I am writing, this paragraph is six lines long. That is too long for the attention span of most people who are processing email. Find a way to create a new paragraph of three or four lines to keep people reading.
Complete emails with closings that keep a person’s attention and create positive emotions. Here are a few you might not want to use:
- All the best
- Regards
- Best wishes
- Many blessings
- Sincerely
Instead, I began using “With gratitude” a few years ago. There are occasions when you should not use “With gratitude,” like when you are sending notes of condolence. “With gratitude” sets a much different tone than other closings. It also reminds us to be grateful for God’s goodness and for the people we write.
Jesus set the pattern here. When the disciples brought Jesus a little boy’s lunch of biscuits and sardines, he gave thanks to God our Father and distributed as much as everyone wanted with twelve baskets of leftovers when the multitude enjoyed full bellies and pleasant burps.
A few verses later, John tells what happened next including Jesus going off alone, the disciples getting in a boat and heading for the opposite shore, and Jesus walking on the water. Then John notes,
“Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.”
The crafting of sentences is one of John’s strengths. He did not say, “Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after Jesus multiplied it.” He recalls and reports that the boats came from “where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.”
Jesus signed this miracle “With gratitude.” It was the gratitude that John remembered and reported. If Jesus, God with Us, expresses gratitude to our Father in heaven, if this is his habit, his routine, shouldn’t it also be ours?
Everything changed that day when Jesus expressed gratitude.
What would change if we spent more of our days expressing gratitude to God and gratitude to our loved ones and gratitude to our coworkers and friends?
Now that this has arrived in our conscious awareness, let’s put it into practice until it becomes a habit. I bet you this kind of habit will make at least a fifty percent improvement in your relationships between now and Christmas.
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I will live with gratitude.
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Our Father, give us today our daily bread. As you provide, we will receive it with deepest gratitude. We will treasure the special people in our lives as gifts from your hands. We will remember every good and perfect gift with joyful delight. We will live with gratitude. Amen.
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