The year I worked as a hospital chaplain I normally liked getting a call from the Birth Center at Rex Hospital. Frequently, this meant that a healthy baby had just been born and the mom and dad desired to have a chaplain present to mark the joyful day with a prayer and a blessing. Those were always wonderful visits, but they were not very common. More frequently, I visited those who were struggling. Many of those, before leaving the hospital, had received hopeful words that because of a treatment or a surgery they were on the road to healing. But most of these could not be characterized by joy. Relief, yes, but not joy.
The same is true in Pastoral Ministry. I spend a lot of time with people who are struggling. I have regular conversations with people who are facing health issues, family tension, grief, addiction, and who are just discouraged. Occasionally, I get to share moments of joy. Parties, anniversaries, and weddings. But the norm is not joy, it is crisis and pain.
In all of this I have learned something deep and meaningful. Even though most of my time is spent with those who are facing a tragedy, hardship, or crisis, I have discovered that those people are often very grateful. It flies in the face of reason, but I have heard a man who was diagnosed with ALS tell me that “it could be worse, I have so much to be thankful for.” I have listened to a woman who’s 30-something-year-old daughter recently died tell me that “I’m so thankful because she did have such a full life.” And it seems that this attitude of Thanksgiving is not based on circumstances, but on a grateful heart. It is as if those for whom “everything is coming up roses” can miss an “attitude of gratitude,” and those who are facing a crisis can still have gratitude rooted deep in their soul.
Twenty-twenty has been a tough year. COVID 19 has taken over 200,000 American’s lives since mid-March, and the infection numbers are now as high as ever. People have lost jobs and homes. It has been a crisis-filled year. We have watched the cruelest of racial violence that has taken God-created life, and then we have grieved when protests have also turned violent and destructive. It has been a tough year. Our hearts are still divided and troubled by an election season that for many continues without appropriate resolution. And our hearts are burdened.
But, this year, more than most, I find it easier to be still, to observe silence, and to consider what it means to be a thankful person.
Find time in these next two weeks to consider the blessings of God in your life. Remember all of God’s good gifts. God’s faithfulness, and goodness, and mercy, and peace. Even in the midst of a trying year, God has been faithful to us His people.
This Sunday in worship we will do just this. We will stop, pause, and think of what it means to be grateful. To offer thanks to God, even in the midst of a difficult time. And we can do this not because “everything is right with the world,” but because our God continues to be good. Join us this Sunday, for worship is our natural response to God’s good work in the world.
Give thanks, for God is good. God’s mercies endure forever.