I’m challenged to thank God for so much more than my circumstances
What will you put at the top of your gratitude list this Thanksgiving?
One item in my Top 10 will surely be “I haven’t come down with COVID-19.”
I’m certainly not alone, but take heed. It’s easy for someone to boast about COVID avoidance, either because the speaker thinks he deserves to stay well because he’s taken every precaution, or because he ignored most of them and has stayed well anyway. Take your choice:
• “I followed the rules and deserve to stay well.”
or
• “I ignored the rules and didn’t get the disease, thus proving I’m smarter than the mandates.”
Either is only a variation of the same problem: pride.
Extending grace
As a guy who’s received two shots plus a booster and still wears his mask to the grocery store, you can see where I fall on the issue of COVID precautions. But my point isn’t to argue; there’s enough of that out there already. And I’ll resist the temptation to point fingers or boast about my decisions, all the while confessing I haven’t felt as sorry for unvaccinated COVID sufferers as I should. Reflecting on that attitude, I’ve come to a decision: I’m wrong.
If I want to cluck my tongue with a posture of “I told you so” or “You got what you deserve,” I should remember this: I’ve lived decades bearing the burdens of my own choices and needing the help of people who carry them with me. Yes, if some folks had been vaccinated, they probably wouldn’t have become so ill. But if I’d confessed a sin, gone to a therapist, studied management principles, or worked quite a bit harder and smarter, my life would have been more effective. Yet so many love and even embrace me in spite of my shortfalls. Surely by now I can extend at least some measure of the grace I’ve received.
Privileged abundance
But I raise all of this not to discuss COVID, but only to highlight the pandemic as an illustration of a larger truth. That is, our thanksgiving tends to be self-centered, sometimes even self-absorbed. I’m grateful for my privileged abundance, but if I take time to enumerate the details this Thanksgiving, I can almost hear God responding, “OK, fine, but what else do you have to say?”
It’s like a little child repeating “thank you” at door after door in response to Halloween candy thrown into his sack. It’s good he’s learning to say thanks, but hopefully someday he’ll forget about the candy and move on to greater gifts. How about gratitude for a room full of toys and clothes? And later, gratitude for a parent or two who worked every day to provide this child’s life. Eventually awestruck awareness of the sacrifices not only of time and money but also the emotional investment that created the security of a relationship defined by love.
Good and perfect
Scripture reminds us that “every good and perfect gift is from above,” but I’m pretty sure the first-century apostle who wrote that wasn’t thinking about houses, cars, or vacations. Likely not even healthy bodies or warm relationships. No matter how good, none of those is perfect, and all of them are temporary. Instead, I think he was hearkening to the psalmist’s encouragement to come before God with thanksgiving simply because “the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods” (Psalm 95:3). Most and first we praise and thank our God because “the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (Psalm 100:4).
If, indeed, we Americans actually take time to express thanksgiving this Thanksgiving Day, let us not stop with our list of physical or even emotional blessings. Let us give God our gratitude for the love he expressed through the gift of his Son. And let us thank him for his faithfulness to support and guide us through the power of the Holy Spirit in every twist and turn of this life.
“God is great and God is good.” Greater than any pandemic. Better than any good thing this world can offer, even a vaccination! And, indeed, we are thankful.
Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash
To receive daily posts delivered directly to your inbox, complete the form at the bottom of our home page.
To download a printable version of today’s post, click here.