How to embrace Thanksgiving, even in the middle of a pandemic
So how are you feeling about Thanksgiving in the middle of our pandemic? With Covid-19 cases rising, schools closing, jobs threatened, and family get-togethers discouraged, what will we do with a day whose purpose is supposed to be expressing gratitude?
As I’ve written more than once, an ongoing problem with Thanksgiving Day has been that we often don’t allow much time amid all our traditions to actually give thanks. Blame it on taking our affluence for granted. Blame it on the fact that Thanksgiving Day is nearly overwhelmed with Christmas ads and Christmas music and Black Friday sales. Blame it on our work ethic and a prevailing sentiment that says, “I labored long and hard to get what’s mine and therefore I deserve it.”
Maybe the problem is our scant attention to giving thanks the rest of the year. Gratitude, for many, is not an attitude they’ve nurtured. Even though many of us seldom start a meal without a hasty “Thank You, God, for this food,” we may not give much other time to acknowledging God as the giver of every “good and perfect gift” (see James 1:17).
Familiar formula, a better routine
The familiar prayer formula ACTS has helped me with this. Advocated since at least the late nineteenth century, ACTS is an outline many Christians have used to order their prayers. I like it because it includes “thanks” but surrounds it with prayers that make gratitude more than a shallow sentiment or routine.
• “A” stands for adoration, praising God for who he is; acknowledging that he alone is God; affirming that we owe him our life, our breath, our strength, our hope. Telling God (and reminding ourselves) that, in spite of our pressing needs or chaotic surroundings, he is the only source for peace and purpose.
• “C” leads us to confession, admitting to God who we really are, acknowledging personal secrets and failings that we tend to forget or minimize or rationalize. Confession is saying out loud how damaged and inadequate we are, in stark contrast to the perfect picture of God drawn in our adoration. This may be the element most missing from many everyday prayers.
• Then we’re really ready for “T,” thanksgiving. Having shone a light on God’s perfection contrasted with our brokenness, we can’t help but give thanks. And this thanks, at least at first, is for more than external comfort or pleasant surroundings or good people. This is a swelling onrush of gratitude from deep inside for the salvation and promise of wholeness God has given us. Once we’ve confronted that, then we’re ready to celebrate all the blessings in our world provided by our “good, good Father.” More about this in a minute.
• Finally, we come to “S,” supplication. One reason I like this acronym is because it forces me to wait before pouring out my requests to God. There are so many—sickness all around, worries about jobs and future paths, pleas for marriages, uncertainty about crucial decisions, unbearable burdens, frustrating disagreements, dysfunctional relationships, ineffective leaders. By taking time to review all God has done in the past, I’m better able to keep my eyes on him and off myself as I lay out needs like these for the future.
This is better than beginning prayer with the typical list of prayer requests, the kind you hear at many prayer meetings and see in many prayer lists. After taking time to rehearse all that God is and all he’s already done, I’m ready to focus on him and his purposes even as I make specific, personal requests.
Everyday blessings, often ignored
But I want to make one more point in the “T” category. As I get older, I’m learning to name gifts from God that are so easy to take for granted. I pray during my almost-daily walk, and so I thank God for my legs, for my eyes to see the trees and flowers I’m passing, for ears to hear the crunch of leaves underfoot or the rush of cars on a nearby highway, for a nose to smell the aroma from a neighborhood grill, for skin to feel the breeze, for hands to zip my jacket against the chill, and for the jacket itself. Through the years I’ve become more intentional about thanks for everyday blessings, because now I’m losing some of the vitality and capacity I took for granted only a decade ago. It is better to be thankful now for what I have than bitter later about what I’ve lost.
Life is full of losses. Perhaps we see that in this pandemic Thanksgiving more than ever. The key to dealing with them is thanksgiving itself. When we stack up what we’ve lost against everything else still in our grasp, when we realize again all that God has given, we gain strength to face any disappointment that threatens to undo us.
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels