Troubling Times, Thankful Heart

Record losses in the stock market, continued layoff announcements, cutbacks in every segment of society, corruption in corporate America and in American government, more implications in performance enhancing drugs in sports, and a bleak forecast for the near future economically. Every day more bad news is announced and more talk abounds about the ills and woes of society. I have found it odd that in a time like this my thoughts have been focused on thanksgiving. I hear no one talking about being thankful and i'm sure if a poll was taken most would say that is because there is nothing for which to be thankful. I wholeheartedly disagree.

Thanks has been defined as follows: a grateful feeling or acknowledgement of a benefit, favor or the like, expressed by words or otherwise. We may feel there is nothing to be grateful for in the present times, but think back to the time before the recent gloom and doom; how many outpouring of thanks and gratitude went out in those times of growth, wealth and prosperity? None. To whom do we owe our thanks? Who is responsible for the benefit, favor or the like in our lives as previously defined? Is it possible that there is no one to thank, or have we just forgotten how to be thankful?

In my opinion, we have forgotten how to be thankful because we have forgotten God. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1970, said the reason for the general malaise of the Western world was because the West had forgotten God. In the United States we have been steadily progressing down a path to eliminate God from all phases of life. We have pressed ideas of time and chance, and that we as humans have all the answers, abilities and strengths required to build ourselves up with our own hands. Ideas have consequences, and the prideful notions that we are the measure of all things, has led to a refusal to give credit where credit is truly due. If we are solely responsible for our successes then we are also solely responsible for our failures; and when troubled times arrive we become bound by the shackles of worry, blame, fear, depression and despair.

A recent list of Presidential rankings has been touted of late. A majority of those more distinguished than I consider Abraham Lincoln the greatest President in American history. In his Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day issued on March 30, 1863 he said, in part, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!" Later that same year amidst national civil upheaval, in his proclamation that lead to the establishment of Thanksgiving Day, President Lincoln wrote, "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."

Personally I have been struggling with difficult decisions and work load at my vocation, my wife has been dealing with debilitating headaches due to a severe sinus infection, my three sons all are suffering with some form of sickness, and we are going through cutbacks financially along with everyone else. At the same time I have an overwhelming sense of thankfulness because above it all I have been shown indescribable favor, and I have been given great benefit. Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples prior to His crucifixion as recorded in 1 Corinthians 11, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." I serve a personal God who created me and cares enough for me to provide a way for my salvation, redemption, justification, sanctification and glorification. If we would remember that gift, borne through ultimate sacrifice, we continue to have reason to give thanks no matter the circumstance.

Psalm 107:10-15 says, "Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains, for they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled and there was no one to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron." In these troubling times, why not enjoy the freedom and peace that comes from the realization that I have reason to be thankful. That I live each day, whether good or bad by my standards, under the watchful eye and protective hand of a personal, creator God, who has promised to work all things out for my eternal good and sacrificed all for my benefit and to show me favor. In this troubling time, let’s give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men!