Thankfulness

As we've approached the holiday, I've been thinking lately about the necessity of the spiritual quality of thanksgiving. I see this holiday as distinctively Christian in nature because it is rooted in one of the most central spiritual outcomes of the life of grace and was born out of a Christian world view.

Of course I look forward to the holiday for all the obvious reasons- some needed time off and some time with family I haven't seen in a while. It's great to have Taylor home from college for a few days and I always look forward to the annual Thompson football classic.

But this Thanksgiving I am committed to driving home the point to my family that the Christian virtue of thanksgiving is to be so central to the way we live that a holiday celebrating it should be more than just an event- it should be a true celebration of a spiritual outcome that is uniquely brought about by the gospel.

Here's what I mean- I don't really see that one can truly exist in a state of thankfulness unless He has embraced the reality of the cross. To be thankful FOR something we have to have someone to be thankful TO. The Bible says in Romans 1:18-23ff that a person without Christ exists in a state of rebellion against God not just because He has seen the reality of God's existence and denied that reality but that He has seen His grace and has rejected it and is therefore ungrateful.

So when I say that one cannot truly live a life of thankfulness without embracing the gospel I don't mean that a lost person does not feel thankful at times, but that he or she cannot truly know the life of thankfulness without truly knowing and understanding and embracing the ultimate truth of their existence- that Jesus Christ has paid the price for their sin and has become a ransom turning back the wrath of God and giving the regenerated sinner all the glorious benefits and blessing he enjoys.

I know this scriptural truth at the very core of my being. It was not until I embraced the reality of the cross that I was truly set free. Since embracing the reality of the cross every day for me has been a day of perpetual thanksgiving and praise. I can now see that no matter what life might hand me, because I know the ultimate and sustaining love of the Father as demonstrated on the cross, His love is the love I have looked for in every other love and His joy is the joy I have looked for in every other joy and His beauty is the beauty I have looked for in every other beauty. So even in hardship my eternal standing has not changed. I can drop my idols and give up on self righteous ways. The worst things that happen to me he will use for good, the truly good things can't be taken away and the very best is yet to come! Therfore I can say like the Psalmist, "This is the day the Lord has made, we WILL rejoice and be glad in it!" (Psalm 118:24) Thankfulness is an act of the will in response to the overwhelming and sustaining grace of God.

My lack of thankfulness are the result of my idolotary. As John Calvin put it, “Our hearts are perpetual idol factories.” That is precisely what Paul says in Romans 1. Rather than giving thanks, the unbeliever exchanges the glory of God for the glory of corruptible idols. Therefore in my most base idolatrous and fallen state, what I perceive as thankfulness is simply a rehearsing of my desire for things to fill my heart that will never satisfy. Thanksgiving for a lot of people is merely raising a toast to all the idols that are keeping them in bondage.

So I don't truly know thankfulness until I have truly known His grace. Until I know I have been created by Him, given life by Him, sustained in that life by Him, pursued by His grace to find salvation in Him and that the very fact that I know and understand what it is I am thankful for I cannot truly know the meaning of it.

Someone has said that "an atheist is someone who when he feels really thankful, has no one to thank."

This is why when one reads scripture it becomes clear that thankfulness is a central outcome of the life of grace. The Bible says to "always give thanks" (Eph. 5:20), "whatever you do in word or deed, always give thanks..." (Col 3:17). Over and over again the Bible teaches us that the heart of the redeemed believer is characterizd by perpetual thankfulness and joy.

I remember as a young pastor how blown away I was by the words "I am so thankful..." at so many hospital rooms and deathbeds. I have sat with many people who even in the midst of great tragedy were able to say "blessed be the name of the Lord!" I can see now after many years as a pastor that this is what happens as one embraces the cross of Christ. This attitude comes from waht we understand in the gospel in the cross of Christ. As Christians we can see that the worst thing that ever happened was also the best thing that ever happened. Gratitude is one of the purest characteristics of a life that has been captivated by His grace.

I have seen true thankfulness up close and personal in some very surprising places lately. I am a man who has been truly blessed. I have known sorrow but for the most part my life has been comfortable. Teri and I have known what it was like to live without much money but we have never known true poverty. My family is blessed with good health for the most part. We have always had good medical care available to us, a nice roof over our head and food on the table. But I have met people recently who often have none of these things and yet have a joy of the Lord that is beautiful and contageous.

I have met people recently whose lives are characterized by thankfulness and joy in spite of the fact that they are living in the midst of terrible poverty and disease and even at times persecution for their faith. Like the pastors I met in Orissa India who minister in a place where Christians are sometimes killed for proclaiming the gospel and yet they couldn't wait to tell me about what God was doing in their lives. Or like the Christians I met in the Middle East who have seen family members shot dead on their way to a Christian school and yet have chosen to forgive and to love their enemies and pray for them and continually give thanks to God for His grace. Or like the elderly woman I stayed with in Slivia Bulgaria who had been arrested by the Communist government many years ago for illegally practicing her faith and had lost her job and everything she owned and yet possessed the incredible countenance of a woman who loved Jesus with all her heart. Or like the family who has chosen to live in a Delhi slum so they can take care of children and teach them about the incredible riches of God's grace.

This is why I say that for the Christian, thanksgiving is much more than just an event celebrated once a year, it is the dynamic outcome of understanding what Christ has done for us. And that is a reality we celebrate every moment of our lives.