This week we take a break from our regular routines to gather with those whom we love to celebrate Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful time full of fond memories, but not always full of thanks, if we're honest. Times are tough and it's when things aren't going as we planned or how we would like them to that it is most difficult to give thanks to God and mean it.
How do we thank Him for the loss of a loved one, for a lay off notice, for a child who keeps making poor choices or for a spouse who has been unfaithful? How do we thank him for illness, unkind remarks supposed friends have made about us or for lost opportunities?
The answer is: by faith. Being able to thank Him for His goodness, for His faithfulness, for His love, for His promise to walk with us through it all, can be the shelter in a storm.
First Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to give thanks in all circumstances because this is God's will for us. He doesn't expect us to be happy about all of our circumstances, or even to understand why they happen all the time, but He does want us to rely on the hope and joy we have in Jesus to get us through them. Sometimes we just have to say, "Thank you for being God. I don't get it, but you're in control" and let that be sufficient. It's when we need to reason, or demand an explanation, or justify our acts that we find it most difficult to say thanks.
These thoughts aren't trite and come from years of struggling with trying to give thanks through the tough times. When we moved to Connecticut eight and a half years ago, we were excited about the new chapter starting in our lives. Things didn't go as we planned, however, and instead we began what I now think of as the desert period in my life. The losses and heartbreak over the past few years have been numerous and weighty and are too complicated to try to list here. Suffice it to say that I haven't always been the most thankful person. When I was at my lowest, God specifically showed me that verse in Thessalonians and it made all the difference.
So this Thanksgiving, I'm giving thanks for the hard times, simply because He's God and He's asked me to. Those times have helped shape me into who I am: a person giving thanks this year for my health; a home; two healthy, really nice, bright kids; a supportive husband who has a job; enough food to eat; best friends Ron, Donna, Bern, Torry, Muriel and Carolyn who've been such an important part of my life for so many years and who bless me in so many ways; countless other close friends and ministry partners; mentor and friend Retta Blaney who continues to amaze me with her generosity and the thrill of working in and writing about theater, which has brought me a fabulous new friend and editor, Andy Propst.
May your Thanksgiving be truly blessed and full of thanks.
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