Thankfulness

In Thessalonians 5, Paul tells us that we should rejoice always (v. 16), pray without ceasing (v. 17) and give thanks in everything (or in all circumstances) for this is the God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (v. 18).

We will talk about prayer another day. I want to focus primarily on being thankful in everything or in all circumstances.

It is easy to be thankful when things are going well; although, how many times do we forget or neglect to say thanks? Consider when Jesus healed 10 lepers, found in Luke 17:11-19. So, 10 lepers begged Jesus to have mercy on them and heal them. Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests (the only way to be considered cured). All 10 took off to the priest while they still had leprosy. As they walked, they were healed. But only 1 of them, noticing he was healed, turned around and went to Jesus, fell on his face, giving Jesus thanks. Jesus asked the man, where are the other nine?

Being miraculously healed is incredible! But 9 took Jesus and the healing for granted, not even stopping to give thanks, just couldn’t wait to get the reward of being healed.

But what about the 10 before Jesus had mercy? Were any of the 10 thankful and rejoicing always? Or were they complaining and whining about how unfair life was and why they had to have leprosy? Why them? Were they able to rejoice at all, even in worship? Or was it all about them, finding nothing for which to be thankful?

So often, we are the 10 before the healing. We look at our lives and wonder why us? Why are we going through what we have to go through? Or even worse, we wonder why our child, family member, or friend has to go through what he/she is going through?

Too often, there is no answer, or at least no good answer. (It’s truly amazing the stupid answers people will give you for why you are going through what you are going through. It never fails to amuse me.)

Paul tells us that we should rejoice always and be thankful in all circumstances! That means in the worst of times, when our heart is breaking the most, when the doctor tells us the diagnosis and the impact on our lives, when there seems to be no hope, we are supposed to rejoice and be thankful.

Having lived through the pit of despair of the darkest night, telling someone to rejoice and be thankful is like pouring salt mixed with alcohol mixed with acid into a wound. It hurts to the core.

However, taking the words to heart (from my counselor), starting to give thanks, makes a huge difference. I started off being thankful for oxygen and water. And because I am a huge nerd, the next day I was thankful for oxygen and hydrogen atoms as I couldn’t think of anything else for which to be thankful. But, I started thinking of other things, like being born here in the USA, to being able to hear music, and so on. When I was being thankful, I started being able to rejoice.

As my counselor told me, it makes a huge difference in our lives when we have an attitude of thankfulness. She was right.

So, whether our world right now is more like the 10 before the mercy and healing of Jesus, or the 9 or the 1 after His mercy, may we never cease to be thankful!