The Religious Nerd

All across America today, people will be gathering around their dinner table enjoying oven roasted turkey, delicious mashed potatoes, seasoned stuffing, pumpkin pie, and many other mouthwatering fixings.  Since the holiday itself has no specific religious affiliation, it is endorsed, celebrated, and eagerly anticipated by people of many different cultural and religious backgrounds.  Many families correlate the day with football.Others can’t wait for the clock to strike midnight leading into the black Friday shopping frenzy. Some people hate this time of the year because of burnt out family connections or because they struggle to find anything to be thankful for in general.

Whatever it may be that stirs up your affections around Thanksgiving, I think it is very easy to lose site of what matters; giving thanks in all circumstances.

It is easy to give thanks when you have a roof over your head.  It is easy to give thanks when you pass out from a turkey induced coma .  It is easy to give thanks when you return to your job on Monday of next week.  Don’t get me wrong, these are all things to be extremely thankful for.  However, it isn’t as easy to give thanks when your circumstances take a turn for the worse.

What about when you lose your job? What about when your electricity gets turned off? What about when you have to go to bed at night with an empty stomach because the 2-3 days worth of food given to you by the foodbank just didn’t last as long as you thought it would? What about giving thanks when you get that call from the hospital notifying you that your love one’s were involved in a terrible car accident and they won’t be coming home for thanksgiving ever again?

There are people in these situations that I meet and pray with with every week. While I do not presume to know exactly why God has put someone into a particular circumstance, I do know, according to the word of God, that God is at work and it is His will for you to give thanks whatever your circumstance may be.  Don’t believe me? Check out this verse:

“give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”   1 Thessalonians 5:18

I write to you with a heavy heart, if you have made it this far without clicking out I give thanks for you for sensing my love for you in this post.  Having spent time working with poor people has certainly softened my heart, and my prayer is that my softness of heart will be contagious to you too.

 My challenge to you is this: when someone asks you what you are thankful for today will you please consider answering them with a well thought out response? Forget about your car, house, job, clothes, and jewelry for a minute.

Consider giving thanks for those circumstances in your life that aren’t necessarily material things or possessions.  Give thanks to Jesus for your parents, your spouse, your children, your aunts, your uncles, your boss (who you may not even like), your friends, your fellow church members, your unsaved neighbors, the guy who works at the gas station you frequent, your mailman, your doctor, your pastors, and that guy who you frankly don’t like very much.  As John Piper once said “Thank God for your cancer”. As Joni Eareckson Tada has said “Thank God for being paralyzed”.

Give thanks to God when you are unemployed, under-employed, crippled, single, divorced, hungry, thirsty, starving, broken-hearted, battling sin, battling addiction, a victim of crime, or if you are losing your house.

Preparing your heart: Admittedly this is a difficult concept for many to understand especially since society teaches us to throw a temper tantrum when life gets hard.  We are taught to want more things – bigger and better things.  We also try to control and manipulate our circumstance as much as we can.  “This is my life, I will not take any job for less than $X wages per/hour, I will not be happy unless I have the nicest car/house out there…” Even when the Lord has blessed us with abundant resources we seem to turn our backs away from him with the attitude “I earned these things”.

The problem with this mindset is this : you will NOT be thankful once you have those things if those things are the utmost treasure of your heart.  Newer models of cars will come out making yours old, the cost of living will go up making you poorer. If you get trapped in the lifestyle of wanting more, you will never be truly thankful. If you are content in what you have, and you treasure God’s will in your life, whatever that may be, than you are on the right track, and I suspect you will be ready to give thanks in all circumstances. Look at the man mentioned in the parable of Luke 12 and you will see what I am talking about when I say it is easy for a man who treasures things to be very unthankful with what he has:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
(Luke 12:13-21 ESV)

That brings me to my last point: why is it that some of the poorest people I know are the most thankful people?  Why is it that when I pray with a woman who is battling cancer, who subsequently relies on the mercy of a foodbank just to eat each week, that her prayers are directed toward thanking God for her circumstance?  Why is it that the lady who is on the verge of losing her housing is the person who thanked God that He gave her housing for the next thirty days?These are real people that I know personally, who are far more thankful for their circumstances than many of the people I know who are in good health, eating well, have lots of stuff, and who have a comfortable mattress that they sleep on every night.

As your Thanksgiving day continues on, will you please consider what the will of God in Christ Jesus is for your life; to give thanks in ALL circumstances. Please consider throwing aside superficial prayers and instead be praying for what really matters in life; Jesus, family, and friends.  Please consider thanking God no matter what His will for your life may be. Please thank God for those people in your life who encourage you to change for the better.  Please thank God for those who are less fortunate than you.  Please thank Him for our soldiers over seas and the teachers at your school.  Will you please pray for me too? That I will not lose sight of what matters most : His will in my life.

Be blessed today brothers and sisters, I am thankful for YOU in ALL circumstances.