What if Thanksgiving Isn’t Working for Me? - Part II
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Well maybe it’s a better thing
A better thing
To be more than merely innocent
Oh, but to be broken then redeemed by love
Well maybe this old world is bent
But it’s waking up, and I’m waking up
’Cause I can hear the voice of one
Crying in the wilderness
”Make ready for the kingdom come”
Don’t you want to thank someone for this?
To thank someone for this?”
In our last post, we considered how God calls us to look back in order to move forward. Israel called these Ebenezers, stones of remembrance or help. The God-moments help us remember and remembrance shifts our present moment.
It’s beautiful, and yet, sometimes even these God-moments seem so few and far between. What if in trying to be thankful, it feels like we’re only contrasting what isn’t working? Sometimes our focus on the good-things can seem to only shed light on how much darkness there is.
“Sometimes our focus on the good-things can seem to only shed light on how much darkness there is.
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Well, later in the New Testament, Jesus calls us to remembrance too. It’s on that last night with His disciples, during the last supper, He instituted an act of remembrance called Communion. The broken bread was a picture of His broken body. The dark wine was a picture of His split blood on the Cross. Such violent and heavy images, but needed, especially for those living in darkness.
For those who are really in it, walking through dark seasons, it is this remembrance of the Cross, that can be so healing.
Jesus didn’t just stand at a distance and tell us to be thankful. He actually entered our darkness. He came into our reticence to be thankful. He carried the cross that we deserved. He came into human brokenness, our brokenness, and didn’t shy away.
“Jesus didn’t just stand at a distance and tell us to be thankful. He actually entered our darkness.”
In this, Jesus shows us God’s heart, God’s power. And in our areas of darkness and death--as we give them to Him—He is able to and willing to bring life.
All those areas that we aren’t thankful for. That we’d rather not have in our lives. Those are the areas Jesus came to deal with.
That is where the Cross can become the greatest Stone of Help. The hardest things, the things we would never stack as Ebenezers, can actually become an altar where His sacrifice affects our area of deepest need.
We can rest all the areas of death and sin we’re facing on that ultimate death of Jesus. For in Jesus, death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54). Wow.
It's not just that we are thankful for the little things, instead, in Jesus, everything coming against us is literally the thing He already paid-the-price to resolve. We're just needing to draw near to Him in that thing.
“It’s not just that we are thankful for the little things, instead, in Jesus, everything coming against us is literally the thing He already paid-the-price to resolve.”
What if Jesus died not just for you to be thankful, but to bring love and power into every area you’re just not thankful for. Could it be that He’s that good? (Rom. 5:17-21, Rom 8:18-28)
And for us whom the giving of thanks is deafened by the volume of death around us, consider, just minutes before Jesus instituted Communion—before His declaration of death transforming into life…what did He do?
“And for us whom the giving of thanks is deafened by the volume of death around us, consider, just minutes before Jesus instituted Communion—before His declaration of death transforming into life…what did He do?”
He got down, wrapped Himself in a towel, and washed His disciple's feet.
He came as a servant.
And maybe instead of mustering up thankfulness today, you just need to come again to Jesus, the Servant, and receive.
Allow Him to wash your feet.
Talk with Him about what you’re going through.
Let Him look you in the eyes.
And see what He’s about.
See His heart again.
Tell Him why it’s hard to be thankful.
And let Him know where you're at.
Be with Him there.
Because, I’d suggest, that’s the type of Thanksgiving that Jesus really wants this holiday.
What about you?
Video Reflection
Take a few moments to be with Jesus this Thanksgiving season. Talk with Him. Remember together.
Let this calming worship song lead you into His presence.
