As common readers and buddies know, this has been a difficult yr for our household. It’s been stretching in methods few of us expertise exterior of loss. And, if I’m being completely forthright, it’s a yr that we’ll be glad to be performed with. Which isn’t to say that there hasn’t been something good, in fact. Quite the opposite, some wonderful issues have occurred—together with having the chance to jot down a e-book for Harvest Home. (You’ll hear extra about that within the new yr.1)
However indubitably, 2024 has been a storm, and it hasn’t at all times introduced out the very best in any of us.
Don’t Deny the Issue
I’m all of the extra conscious of this as we gear up for our first Thanksgiving and Christmas following the lack of a number of members of the family, in addition to the top of our church in September. And I additionally know we’re not alone on this. Many individuals this yr are experiencing totally different levels of grief, sorrow, and loss—the fruit of our damaged world. Holidays are difficult at the very best of instances, and these are usually not the very best of instances.
Relying on the tradition we grew up in, we could be tempted to brush off the issue we’ve skilled. To both placed on a stiff higher lip or put on a masks of false positivity whereas telling ourselves to at all times look on the brilliant aspect of life. If that’s you, let me encourage you with this proper now: don’t.
Don’t deny the issue you’ve skilled. What you’re experiencing is actual, and so is the ache that comes with it. Let these near you bear the burden with you.
And as you do, give thanks.
Why We Can Give Thanks
I get it: this sounds unusual, maybe even contradictory to what I simply mentioned. The considered giving thanks in these instances is troublesome for a lot of. But that is precisely what we’re referred to as to do. Greater than that, it’s what we have to do. Why? Not due to what we’re going by however as a result of God is sweet, even within the worst of it. I like the best way that Richard Sibbes described it:
In any way our situation be, allow us to by no means restrict God. God’s individuals ought to by no means be higher, the instances had been by no means worse. The place we be unhealthy, God is sweet. Instances are unhealthy, God is sweet. He can alter all. When there isn’t a hope of escaping, no possible concern, God could make it good.2
We can provide thanks within the worst of instances as a result of, in doing so, we will remind ourselves of who God is. God is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and reality” (Exodus 34:6 NKJV). And that is true whether or not we will see it clearly or when our perception is hanging on by a thread. He isn’t overcome by our circumstances. He’s with us in them.
And that looks like one thing we will be grateful for, doesn’t it?
Picture by Simon Maage on Unsplash
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