By Craig Laughlin
Marysville Church of the Nazarene
It almost seems cruel. A few weeks after the shooting and days after the last funeral we find ourselves looking at Thanksgiving. Normally this would mean thoughts of gratitude for all that God has done in the previous year. Don’t get me wrong, God has done a lot. It’s just that there have also been a couple of nearly incomprehensible tragedies in the Oso slide and the M-P shooting. It just seems like we have had more than our fair share of late. Honestly, the whole thing has left me a little emotionally flat when it comes to giving thanks.
As I have pondered all this the Holy Spirit has been prodding me. It’s that poking God does when I’ve missed something significant, and I need to catch on. Sometimes God and I wrestle about these things for a long time but sometimes the Lord clears things up more quickly. The important revelation came last week while grappling with a Thanksgiving sermon that just wouldn’t come together.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 the Apostle Paul writes, “Give thanks in all things, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In light of the real disasters we have faced the verse seems cruel. I get the giving thanks bit but in ALL things? Really? It took me awhile but God finally got the important truth through.
The verse says IN not FOR.
In not For, is a hugely important difference. Honestly it changes everything. “In” is about geography. You can be in a house or in a cave. “For” is about causation. For the crime of shoplifting I sentence you to … “For” means because of. It means during.
Paul was not telling those early Christians to give thanks FOR their circumstances. He was instructing them to give thanks IN the midst of their difficult circumstances. I felt greatly revealed, and then the Holy Spirit sprung the trap.
I’m an ungrateful person. I don’t like that about me but the truth is 99.99 percent of the time when I am grateful, I’m grateful “for” what I have. House, car, job, vacation, even family, friends and church are all things for which I am profoundly grateful. I should be grateful for all these things. God has blessed those of us in the Western World with so much stuff that it’s embarrassing when compared to the rest of the world. Yes, please give thanks “for” stuff. But really, thanksgiving for stuff is pretty shallow.
The deeper, more substantive thanks-giving is the kind that is offered to God when there isn’t much “for” which to be thankful. This is the kind of thankfulness that is more important than stuff. It bubbles up from the depths in the soul. It is not dependent on the circumstances of the moment. It cares not about prosperity or poverty. It sees beyond grief and the struggles of pain. This kind of thankfulness gives life to us because it forces us to stop looking at what we do or do not have and turn our attention toward who we have.
Who we have is Jesus Christ who has conquered death and given us new life. Who we have is the Holy Spirit who is the Comforter and cares for us when all else is stripped away. Who we have is our Heavenly Father who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and will one day put an end to all pain and suffering. Who we have … is God, and nothing can take that away.
This Thanksgiving is going to be different for us. There will be a certain sadness that will hang over the day. I will remember that there are many, many families in my community that are grieving loss, facing the first major holiday with an empty chair at the table. We will pray for them, we will not give thanks for those circumstances for they were evil. But then… then we will give thanks to God IN our grief, for this is God’s will for us.
May the Peace of Christ be yours this Thanks-Giving season.
