Where do you find a turkey with no legs?
... exactly where you left it.
Now that I’ve gotten your attention with an obnoxious dad joke, happy November and happy month of Thankfulness! While Thanksgiving is an American holiday and isn’t specifically a Christian holiday like Christmas or Easter, it might as well be with how much God’s word says about being thankful.
The Psalms and the New Testament are packed with praises of thanksgiving by David and urgings to be thankful by other writers as well.
Psalm 92:1-2 "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare and Your steadfast love in the morning, and Your faithfulness by night.”
Hebrews 13:15-16 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that openly profess His name…”
While a lot of social media posts and the classic “go around the dinner table and say what you’re thankful for” conversations typically center around our belongings and our family members, these verses mention none of those things.
Instead, they are all centered around one specific thing, and more appropriately, one person: the name of the Lord. Telling our friends we’re thankful for them and being grateful for our food/car/house/running ability, etc. isn’t bad or sinful. However, it is necessary to remember that our thankfulness must be directed at the One who created and gave us all of those things. God wants us to enjoy His creation, but not as much as He wants us to enjoy Him, the Creator.
That means not just being thankful for what He has done for us, but being thankful for who He is. It’s easy to thank Him for what He has done. Besides things and relationships, He gave us the greatest gift of all by sending His Son. It’s natural to thank Him for these things and we should!
But thanking Him for who He is rather than what He has done means recognizing and worshipping His character.
He is love (1 John 4:16).
He is worthy (Rev. 4:11).
He is gentle and lowly (Matthew 11:29).
He is mighty and powerful (Jer. 32:17).
He has made Himself known (Rom. 1:19), yet He is incomprehensible (Psalm 147:5).
Acknowledging these qualities and thanking Him for them puts us in our place as His creation. It leaves us in awe of Him, reminding us of where our identity lies.
This year, like 2020, is another year of adjusting to a “new normal” when it might not be as easy and natural to find things to praise God for. We oftentimes acknowledge that we’re #blessed when things are going exactly the way we prayed, but do we say that when that XC race or relationship didn’t end the way we hoped, or when something happens that sends our life in a direction we didn’t plan for? Is it possible to still be #blessed in those seasons?
One of my favorite stories in the book of Acts is a prime example of continuing to praise when things haven’t gone as planned. Silas and Paul have been arrested. Despite being stripped, flogged and chained in a jail cell, they “were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).
Not only did they keep their heads up and not dwell in self-pity, they continued to praise God and waited in anticipation for God to move. Their posture of worship and trust during this time led to not only their own freedom, but to the salvation of the jailer and his whole household.
I’m sure you can think of a time in your life, or maybe you’re in one right now, when things are not going as you hoped or planned. One of these times for me happened my senior year of college when I found out my collegiate career was over due to a hip impingement. I was in peak shape and naturally frustrated why this was happening.
Obviously, it was challenging being on the sidelines, but I found a lot of joy in serving on the team by timing during practices, helping write workouts and working at meets. I was able to build relationships with girls on the team I hadn’t gotten to know before and encourage my teammates in a different way than when I was running alongside them.
I learned to be thankful for the other things that I was able to enjoy during my senior year while not competing: more sleep, fully enjoying the cafeteria, spending last moments with my friends, finishing strong academically while looking forward to graduation as well as planning our wedding that summer!
God had other things for me that year than qualifying for Nationals or setting a new PR. I know many of you can relate as you’ve most likely had a season and part of a school year stripped away because of covid. It would have been easy to become angry or bitter that those opportunities were taken away from me, but fully embracing and being thankful for everything that I was still able to do allowed me to have one of my favorite years of college.
The “valleys” are not the only places people can forget to sing praises to their Creator. Even when things are “going well” for us, we somehow find a way to compare our situation to the person next door (or in our social media feed) and fail to give thanks to our Lord Jesus.
In a world that has more wealth and less poverty than ever before, this Theodore Roosevelt quote seems more relevant than ever. “Comparison is the thief of all joy.”
We each hold in our hand a tool (and perhaps you’re using it right now to read this) that for the first time allows us to peek into anyone’s life we want, at least the part they want us to see and can filter. For the first time, we can measure and compare popularity through likes and followers.
Cutting out more social media has brought a lot of joy and time back into my life! I don’t have Instagram, I only use Facebook on my computer to prevent mindless scrolling throughout the day, and I have time limits set on many other apps such as Snapchat and TikTok. I’ve started using an old fashioned alarm clock and charging my phone outside of our bedroom so that it’s no longer how I start and end my day. When I’m having my quiet time, I leave my cell in another room. When you’re stuck at a red light or waiting for a few minutes in line at the store, rather than impulsively reaching for your phone to fill the seconds, say a prayer of thankfulness and just check in with your Father. He wants to hear from you!
While working with youth at church, it is amazing to hear that their phone screen time is 14 hours or more a day, including 6+ hours on a specific social media. When we constantly see how much fun everyone else is having, see how beautiful their boyfriend/girlfriend/family is, or how nice their things are, it’s no wonder that we immediately compare ourselves and think of what we’re missing.
This Thanksgiving season, taking a few simple steps like the ones I have mentioned, turning social media notifications off, and setting downtime on your phone each evening, will allow you to be present with the people you’re with and focus on the blessings God has given you- rather than what you’re missing out on. Hang up and hang out!
It’s exciting to consider what focusing on God’s gifts, praising Him for who He is, and being present with those around us will do for our anxiety, mental health, relationships with others, and best of all, our relationship with our Creator!
