THANKSGIVING IN SORROW
NOTE FROM BARNEY: Happy Thanksgiving to all. I’m truly feeling blessed today. I miss Linda so much, but I’ve been spending time mediating on God’s blessings. I’m blessed and thankful in so many ways. God is so good! The article below pretty well sums up where I’m at right now. Remember the date for Linda’s memorial is January 20 at 11 AM at Santa Rosa Christian Church. It will be live-streamed as well.
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Thanksgiving. A warm and fuzzy holiday, if there ever was one. Blow-up turkeys gracing our lawns. Pictures of pilgrims and cornucopias. Football and feasting. But the first Thanksgiving was a different story—one birthed out of pain.
The year before the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians sat down to feast in 1621, the colonists experienced unimaginable adversity. Forty-seven of the original 102 had died. Imagine if nearly half our friends and family died this past year. Would we devote an entire day to giving thanks, and cap it off by feasting on turkey, dressing, and gravy?
The colony met to discuss how to commemorate their first year in the new world. Someone suggested a day of mourning. Another proposed a day of fasting. But in the end, they opted for a day of thanksgiving, for God carrying them through the difficult year. Writing in a friend in England, colonist Edward Winslow stated, “By the goodness of God, we are far from want.”
It’s so easy to allow ourselves to be controlled by circumstances. If things are good, life is rainbows and unicorns. If not, then we’re going to try to make everyone around us miserable. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, what if we praised God in our adversity? What if we centered on our blessings, instead of our struggles?
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul wrote, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” The believers in Thessalonica were undergoing extreme persecution (1:6). Yet God commanded them to “Give thanks.” Notice he doesn’t say, “Give thanks for all things,” but “give thanks in all things.” It’s a battle, but when we rise above our circumstances, and thank God instead of complaining, our circumstances might remain the same, but we don’t. Gratitude fills us with joy.
Choosing to be grateful in the trauma of losing Linda has saved my life. When I begin slipping into a pit of despair, I deliberately count my blessings. There are so many: fifty wonderful years with an amazing woman, family and friends who love us, intimacy with God like I’ve never known, getting to say goodbye to her…
It’s not easy. Focusing on what we have, rather than what we don’t have is a daily battle. But it makes all the difference, just as those pilgrims discovered 402 years ago in the midst of extreme struggle. Let’s give thanks, even in times of sorrow.
Principle: Being grateful in the midst of suffering changes our lives.
Ponder:
What difficult circumstances are you currently facing, or have you recently faced?
How can you thank God in the midst of these situations?
Pursue: For a deeper dive, study 1 Thessalonians 5.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your amazing blessings. Even in the midst of pain, I praise you for your goodness.