Are you coming into this Thanksgiving season thankful?

In America, families are finalizing plans to come together, eat too much, and ideally share things for which they are thankful.  For some, this is easy; for others, that last part can feel impossible.

This has been a hard year for many, and in the midst of loss and hardship they may struggle to know how to practice gratitude.

What if our thanks-giving isn’t contingent on our circumstance?

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“Always”, “continually”, and “all circumstances”; there is not much wiggle room with those words.  The Apostle Paul makes it clear that it is God’s will for the church in Thessalonica — and for us — to rejoice, pray, and give thanks no matter what.

It’s natural for us to wonder how that can even be possible when times are hard, but this only betrays our misaligned understanding of how joy, prayer, thanksgiving, and reality itself even work.  In our minds, reality is a progression towards better and better while avoiding anything that could derail it, prayer is how we insure progress, and joy and thanks come in the moments it’s all working out.

“All circumstances” does include the good moments, but the vast majority entails the moments of journeying, the moments of waiting, the moments of hardship, the moments of loss.

When Paul met the Thessalonians, they may have been living decent, even good lives, and he knew his message would disrupt that; in fact, he knew the gospel could bring persecution and even martyrdom to them and those they loved.  Where is the joy and thanksgiving in that!

Paul knew where: it was in the deeper, eternal reality Jesus revealed, and the full life he promised.  Their best lives could never come close to touching the “abundantly more” that Paul was about to share; because he knew this, he knew in and every circumstance would be a part of their journey to wholeness, and thus worthy of joy and thanks.

We can give thanks for the here-and-now things, the small and big wins, and the exciting opportunities; in the absence of those, we can give thanks that God is actively drawing us more and more into his likeness.  We can rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances because God is real and loving in our lives today.

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:15-17