I wish I had come up with that phrase.  It is actually a section title in a wonderful book I am reading, The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality. 

The chapter I read yesterday would have added a lot to my sermon Sunday.  Here are a few quotes:

Sanctity [holiness] has to do with gratitude. To be a saint is to be fueled by gratitude…

Sanctity is as much about having a mellow heart [the shalom that passes understanding?] as it is about believing and doing the right things; it is as much about proper energy as about truth.

Our task as Christians is to transform the world through love and justice but we will not succeed in this if our actions issue forth from anger or guilt.  Only one kind of person transforms the world spiritually, someone with a grateful heart.

Both liberals and conservatives believe that their causes are so urgent, we are so wounded, and our world is so bad, that, in our situation, anger and bitterness are justified.  But we are wrong. The wrong God is the God of both the contemporary right and the contemporary left, that is, the God who is as wired, bitter, anxious, workaholic, neurotic and unhappy as we are.

If you have not listened (again) to Sunday’s message, I encourage you to fill a cup with your favorite warm beverage and sit down for 20 minutes to give it a second listen.  I don’t often tout my own sermons, but I don’t feel like this one is mine.