Count your blessings
An elderly couple, Georgia and Fred, sat down to their Thanksgiving dinner. As they are eating Georgia says: “Fred has our 50 years of marriage made you grateful?” He replies: “Yes indeed! It has made me so thankful for the 20 years I was a bachelor!”
The song reminds us to “Count your many blessings, name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” But sometimes we might feel like Fred and giving thanks is the last thing we feel like doing. Sometimes we may feel like the Jews in exile who lamented: “By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Jerusalem. There on the poplars we hung our harps…How can we sing here in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:1-4). Sometimes things happen to us, or happen to people that we love, or we find ourselves in circumstances that make us heartsick or afraid or distressed. And the last thing we want to hear is “Count your many blessings.”
The people in Thessalonica were suffering. They suffered because they were trying to live a Kingdom-of-God lifestyle in an anti-Kingdom-of-God world. Paul was very much aware of their persecutions. In fact, Paul’s life was not a bed of roses, but a life of thorns. He was in jail as much as out, hungry as much as well-fed. And yet out of the pain and anguish and struggle of his own life, to the pain, anguish and struggle of other lives he says: “Rejoice always, pray constantly, and in all circumstances give thanks, for that is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16-17). Note: Paul does not say: “Be thankful for all circumstances”, but “be thankful in all circumstances of life.” Why should we be thankful in all the circumstances of life? “Because: “Then God will bless you with peace” (Phil. 5:7).
You may have more adversity than Carter has pills, and therefore think that you have a right to say: “This is the day that the devil has made, let us complain and be miserable in it.” Oh really! Think a moment about Robert Green. After a head on traffic collision, he spent months in a coma, and over a year in rehabilitation. During this grueling and painful time, Robert wrote a letter to his mother saying: “I have ten different reasons to be thankful.” Here are three items from his thanksgiving list: “I am thankful that I have strong arms. This helps me move with the wheelchair and with the crutches. I am thankful for the future, for it holds not a promise but a challenge and an opportunity. I am thankful for God who has given me life.” When asked how he could still thank God, Green quoted 1 Thess. 5:18: Rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.”
A Swedish proverb says: “Those who wish to sing can always find a song.” Therefore if you burn the turkey give thanks because Salmonella won’t be a concern. Even if you burn the turkey count your blessings because Uncle George will eat less and then he will less likely walk around with his pants unbuttoned. Count your blessings, name them one by one and on Thursday and every day say: “Thanks be to God.”