Thankfulfullness

Published on my Xanga on Tuesday, November 28, 2006.

Thanksgiving: I challenge you to journey beyond the question, "For what are you thankful?" to face the challenge, "For what are you not thankful?" And I certainly don't mean to detract from the opportunity to appreciate life's little blessings that are too often pushed behind the curtain of the demands of the Schedule, nor do I want to replace any thoughts about what it means to have a genuinely grateful attitude. But the bottom line is that God calls us to not to give thanks in some, or many, or even most, but in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Especially in such an important area, succeeding in 99% of your life means failing in 100% of it - we're all aware about how much power one or two things have to drag down and destroy.

Not approaching the Provider with an attitude of gratefulness because of ignorance or apathy or unintentionality is tragic, but determinedly holding onto an attitude of unthankfulness is horrific. Buried into each life are horrors that haunt, regrets that immediately trigger shocks of pain. But embracing pity parties when such memories surface and "hopeless" situations arise is blatantly wrong. Because in so doing, you pound an "Ignore" stamp on all of God's promises, an "Irrelevant" stamp on your relationship with Him, and an "Idiot" stamp on your own forehead.

Sure, you can easily let this slip by, not wanting to address such issues or initially refusing to believe that you'd ever embrace pain over something better, beyond. Maybe I'm the only one who in cases perversely takes pleasure in pain and pitifulness, encouraging memories to haunt and regrets to fluster and frustrate. But I doubt it.

Paul's letters to the Corinthians are certainly some of the most awkward books of the Bible. Their relationship must have been pretty bizarre, because Paul is always clarifying and restating and referring to past actions and words. But he doesn't give up or give in. At one point in 2 Corinthians after some such clarifying, he chooses to say, "Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it - I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while - yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance."

For one as socially inept as I, awkward relationships with people I care about that I end up hurting are the worst, and I can't imagine causing such pain through both challenging communication and misunderstandings. The hauntingness would almost certainly permanently pull me away from any interactions with them. But Paul is persistent and prays for eyes to see how God would bring about good in something such as that. And he sees it, and claims it, and allows God to turn regrets of negatives into thanksgivings for positives.

Just one simple example that I ran into this semester - it's not the biggest deal, but don't minimize it either: it's Paul's relationship with a large and in-charge Gentile church that he strove to love as God loved, even with regrets and pain and confusion. Choose to pray for eyes to see God's work and claim the good that He faithfully brought about from the most difficult and complicated situations. "What God has not protected you from, He is perfecting you through."