Skipping Thanksgiving?

 

“When I'm worried and I can’t sleep,
I count my blessings instead of sheep,
and I fall asleep, Counting my blessings” 

So, what’s your favorite Christmas movie? There are a few movies that, well, it’s just not quite Christmas if I don’t watch them at least once during the season. One for me is White Christmas. There’s also a big message for Thanksgiving in that movie. Remember when Bing Crosby sang “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” to Rosemary Clooney? “When I’m worried and I can’t sleep…” But do you know what? I’m not so good at counting my blessings. I’m much better at counting my burdens or the things that I’m ticked off about. I’m a natural grumbler. More times than I want to admit, I’m an ungrateful brat and need to repent.

This year, I don’t feel very thankful. Because of Covid-19, I’m missing a lot of things. We were supposed to be in Taiwan with Aaron and Jiayu in April but that didn’t work out. We delayed it to the first part of this month, but those plans had to be jettisoned as well. Maybe sometime in 2021. The truth is that I miss my son. I miss my daughter-in-law. I don’t want to just do Facetime. I want to give them a big hug. I want to see them face to face.

And I hate masks (there I said it…but, yes, I wear one). I miss seeing smiles. I miss seeing people laugh. I hate seeing the fear and anger in people’s eyes when I’m out shopping. If one more celebrity or politician scolds me and tells me to wear my mask, stay home, socially distance…well, it’s enough to make me want to mug a girl scout.

I miss seeing people at church. I’m not sure when I’ll see some of them again, though I understand, especially those with compromised immunity.

It breaks my heart that I can’t go to the hospital and pray with someone before they have surgery, and we’ve had a lot of them at church. Because they must quarantine prior to surgery, I can’t even go to their home and pray with them. The best I can do is a phone call prayer. It’s all so sterile and artificial. I’m a pastor, not “Dial-A-Prayer.”

And please don’t get me going about politics. I’m an adult child of an addict. I hate being lied to. When a politician speaks, that little ditty plays in the back of my mind, “Liar, Liar, pants on fire!” I wish that it’d happen just once…instead of Facebook or Twitter censoring and doing the “fact checking” because who’s fact-checking the fact checkers?

I can’t remember a time of so much rage and anger. Add to that the burning cities, all of those who have died, the lost jobs, and the closed businesses and restaurants. If the Grinch and Scrooge are the dark side of Christmas, what’s the dark side of Thanksgiving? Turkey-zilla?

So, if it’s okay with you, I think I’ll skip Thanksgiving this year. Maybe I’ll write a book, Skipping Thanksgiving? I wonder if Tim Allen would star in the movie version?

But I can’t just blow off Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving isn’t just a national holiday, it’s the DNA of the child of God. The government may be able to cancel family gatherings BUT they can’t cancel Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is to be who we are 365 days a year, 24/7. Lately the words of the Habakkuk 3:17-18 have been rolling around in my head:  

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation”

The continual message of Scripture is that I have a Heavenly Father who is there with me and will get me through even the worst times. That’s Habakkuk’s God. That’s the God he trusted. Often we talk about the faith of Job because of his perseverance in the midst of horrible suffering. But while Job demonstrates a college-level faith; Habakkuk is grad school – and he’s where we all want and need to be. Job trusted God after terrible suffering but he didn’t know it was coming. Habakkuk, even though he knows terrible, calamitous suffering is coming – still trusts God.  Joy isn’t found in our circumstances. It’s found in the very person of God.

It’s really not just about “counting blessings instead of sheep.” Biblical thankfulness is about God—His sovereignty, His  goodness, His love—even when it doesn’t feel like it. It’s an act of faith that changes everything.  

Christian gratitude isn’t despite the circumstances, but because of them. Because our Heavenly Father is in control that means that everything has a purpose, even when I’m not privy to His purpose and plan. It means that even when all hell is breaking loose, God is still good all of the time, kind all of the time, gracious all of the time, and merciful all of the time. His purpose is ultimately good and benevolent. And no matter what we do, that purpose will work for our good and the good of the world. It certainly puts Thanksgiving in a different light, even 2020 Thanksgiving.

Please don’t get me wrong. It’s hard to be thankful if the dark is really dark. I’m not a Pollyanna and neither were the people of God found on the pages of Scripture or believers who trusted Him throughout Church History. They were happy and thankful for the good stuff and weren’t altogether happy about the bad. Yet, they knew a secret about a good and sovereign Father who does everything right. Thankfulness was still hard in the dark, but it had meaning and moved from a cliché to a profound truth.

Because no matter what happens God is still good and He’s good all of the time. By God’s grace, I’m choosing to have a great Thanksgiving and be thankful, and not just on Thanksgiving. Even if I get COVID-19, even if the world falls apart, thankfulness is still at the heart of our faith. This world is not my Home! Now that’s something to be truly thankful about!

How about you? Want to join me as I walk forward growing in gratitude?

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