Devotional from Pastor Dave November 22, 2023

Thanksgiving is this week. This is one of my favorite holidays. It’s a day for simply spending time with family and friends, watching or maybe even playing a friendly football game, and enjoying rich food and fellowship. And it’s all about gratitude, giving thanks, which has been scientifically demonstrated to make folks feel better.

In his first letter to the church in Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul includes in his concluding remarks the instruction to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (5:18). I think it’s important that he doesn’t say “give thanks for all circumstances,” because there are some circumstances that we experience in our lives that are hurtful or harmful, for which we most certainly would not want to give thanks. Instead, Paul says “give thanks in all circumstances”—that is, in the midst of everything, even in the mud and the muck of the hard and awful things.

Some years ago, a fellow named John Kralik wrote a book called 365 Thank Yous in which he described his practice of writing a thank-you note every day for an entire year. He wasn’t feeling particularly grateful when he set out to write these daily notes. In fact, he was going through a tough time. His law firm was failing. His marriage was failing. He was living in a cramped apartment and sleeping on the floor.

One day, he got lost on a hike, and as he was making his way back down the mountain, he hatched a plan to write a thank-you note every day for a year. His only problem was, “did I have anything to be grateful for? The way my life was going, I hardly thought so.”

But he started writing notes to his friends and family members, the folks close to him, expressing his gratitude for their love and friendship. But pretty soon it became more difficult to think of folks to thank. One day, he stopped by his regular coffee shop, where the barista greeted him by name and asked him with a big smile if he wanted his usual order. It struck him that “this is really kind of a great gift in this day and age of impersonal relationships, that someone had cared enough to learn my name and what I drank in the morning.” So he wrote her a thank-you note.

He kept up this practice throughout the whole year, finding or thinking of someone to thank every day. What he discovered was that the regular practice of gratitude changed his perspective on life. It also affected his faith. After considering himself an atheist for many years, toward the end of that year he found his way to a church, where he was moved by the music and by the messages that grace was available to all, even to him. Through his practice of gratitude, he “developed a notion of being blessed with grace.”

I love this story, because it reminds me what giving thanks in all circumstances can look like. And it also reminds me that every day­–not just one day a year–can be a day for giving thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I’m so incredibly grateful to share in ministry with you here at Signal Crest!