We begin the Godly Play liturgy each Sunday with these words:
Let us give thanks to the Lord.
It is right to give thanks and praise.
We should say it in the sanctuary, too, each week, when we come to worship together, to remember that it is right to offer thanks to God.
So often we come with our petitions and prayers, our hurts and burdens—and this is right, too—but I wonder if sometimes we forget how to say thank you to God, how to even see the good that God is doing in our midst so that we can give thanks.
The past several times I’ve led worship at my church, I’ve offered space for a time of thanksgiving before we move into a time of petition.
The silence has been deafening.
It gives me pause. I know I’m more in the habit of giving thanks than most people, and I know this habit helps me see the gifts I’ve been given. But it’s hard for me to imagine that other Christians, people in my own community, don’t give thanks. Not just hard; impossible.
So I wonder: is it that they’re embarrassed by the wealth of their lives? Do they feel guilty singing out their praise for all to hear? Are they afraid that some who hear will feel jealous? Do they worry that they will come off as boasting? That they will discourage the hearts of others whose lives are not as good? Or not good in the same way?
Or do they really not see how much they have to be thankful for?
I don’t know. But it puzzles me, and whatever the reason, it can’t possibly glorify God for us to remain silent when we’ve been so blessed. Ought not we who have been given so much be on the front lines when it comes to thanks and praise? We who have received the biggest and best Gift of all, ought we not live with praise ever on our lips?
After all, it is right to give thanks and praise.
Praise the Lord from the heavens,
praise him in the heights…Praise him sun and moon,
praise him all you shining stars,
praise him highest heavens
and you waters above the heavens…Praise the Lord from the earth,
you dragons and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping beasts and flying birds!Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
Young men and women alike,
the old together with children!Praise the Lord!
—Psalm 148
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”
—James 1:17
I exhort you to keep (or begin!) counting all those good and perfect gifts that remind us again and again of how much the Giver delights to give good gifts to His children because He delights in us.
2693. The Gift that all the other gifts point to.
2694. Safe travels on this mini-vacay we’re having.
2695. GPS
2696. Books on tape (er, CD), especially if they’re by Jim Weiss.
2697. More chances to delve into the Wilberforce biography I’ve been reading these past weeks. I am awed and amazed and inspired by this man—and so so so grateful for the Great Change that changed not just his life but the life of the world.
2698. Another amazing sentence from the often wickedly witty Eric Metaxas:
The erroneous term “Clapham Sect” was most likely coined after Wilberforce’s death, and it is misleading beacause a sect is a group whose theology is somehow deviant from the norm, while the Clapham folks were about as theologically deviant as the Nicene Creed.”
That just makes my heart happy.
2699. An afternoon all by myself at Powell’s Books.
2700. 4 hours, 34 books, and $178 later, I emerged into the balmy Portland afternoon as giddy as a schoolgirl in love.
2701. I am a schoolgirl in love: with books and learning and teaching my kids. Here’s to the start of another school year! Woot! (Those 34 books? All for school this year. What can I say? I was born for this.)
2702. The beautiful Oregon coast.
2703. Good food. And lots of it. How immeasurably blessed we are to have such an abundance of delicious, nutritious food at our fingertips everywhere we go!
2704. The most expensive half-gallon of organic milk I’ve ever purchased ($5.69!!!) makes me even more grateful than usual for my beloved PCC.
2705. A morning at the park, climbing trees and splashing in the fountain. (Okay, so I didn’t actually climb any trees or splash in any fountains. For which I am also grateful.)
2706. Two nights in a row of nine hours of sleep! Blessed, glorious sleep.
Your turn: What are you thankful for?
Please write three or four (or ten!) things for which you’re grateful down in the comment box. Let’s lift up a hymn of grateful praise to the Giver of all good and perfect gifts!
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Linking today with Ann Voskamp, who inspired the gift list in the first place.
I agree. Learning to practice gratitude has really changed my attitude, and I think my life, in recent years. I’m not sure why we don’t do it more. But I think limiting our thanks to material goods could be a source of problem. So those who don’t have, don’t think they can be thankful? And those who do have may indeed feel some embarrassment. We as a rule don’t know how to practice deep, insightful gratitude.
Anyways, a few from my list (that I should get in the habit of writing down but right now it’s just something I do before I go to sleep).
– the strength to begin a house project yesterday and finish it all! (not typical for me)
– another freelance project on the horizon
– sounds trite but I’m so thankful for relatively good health, that my senses are all intact, and for energy renewed day by day
– community
Dianne,
It’s not trite to be thankful for good health. At all. Those of us who are healthy ought to be thankful every day for this gift that enables us to live our lives and help others, yes?
Thank you for your insight about gratitude for material goods making people uncomfortable. Believe me, I wonder about this. And it’s not limited to material goods, is it? I enjoy good health; some don’t. I have four children; some who long for children can’t have them. Both my parents are still living; many people my age have lost both their parents. The list goes on and on of all the things we have that someone else doesn’t. Clean water. Indoor plumbing. Good roads. Good books. Literacy. Education.
I wonder if perhaps we *ought* to be embarrassed by all the gifts we have. Perhaps that sense of “why should I have all this when someone else doesn’t?” might move us to a place of generosity? Of recognizing that we have indeed been blessed and that the blessings we receive (because it is all gift!) are not for our use alone but to be given to others, that they too might be blessed. It’s the Abrahamic covenant. It’s the call of the gospel: blessed to be a blessing. We’ve over-said and under-lived that phrase, which is why it sounds trite. But if we stopped saying it (except perhaps to ourselves) and began living it, I wonder if we’d find ourselves less embarrassed by the wealth of our blessings and more grateful for them, more humbled by them?
I’m thinking out loud here, and clearly my thoughts need refining, but you helped me understand one of the pieces that’s been missing in all my talk of gratitude–that it’s not about me at all. The gifts are given to me, yes, but God intends them to flow *through* me. Noticing the gifts, giving thanks for them, simply helps me to see all that I’ve been given that I can now give to others. Thank you for helping me articulate this!
Warmly,
Kimberlee
I appreciate your thoughts too. I’m really beginning to ponder the place of humility on my journey and the connection between gratitude and humility and as well, praise. You’re right, it’s not about me at all.
Thanks for this Kimberlee! My morning quiet time from This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer was focused on thanksgiving and our tendency not to acknowledge the blessings we have. I found myself very reflective this morning.
I humbly thank God for:
-my new beautiful and amazing bride
-the community that has embraced me this past year with friendship and love
-my current season of life and the gift it is being a student
Oh Jarad, what a list! I am thankful for you and your beautiful and amazing new bride, too! And I am thankful that I get to be a part of your community. It’s humbling to realize what we’ve been given, isn’t it? I sometimes wonder if that’s part of why we don’t give thanks: because it reminds us how little we bring to the table, how the meal spread before us is all a gift. But when we see the laden table, what else can we do except, as you say, humbly thank God?
Thanks for the reminder! I am thankful that we returned safely from California on Tuesday and the kids were really well behaved all the way home. It was only once we returned home that Alex became upset because he loves being at my aunt’s house in San Diego and he misses her and her dogs and her pool and my uncle and my cousin…. Poor kiddo. I miss them too. I am also thankful to come home to a house that was undisturbed while we were away for nearly two weeks (we have good neighbors) except for my mother-in-law coming in to water mine and my mother’s plants (we littered them all over the front room so Mimi wouldn’t have to go far). I am also so VERY thankful that my kids will start school late next week (Alex starts 3rd grade on Thursday and MIranda starts Kindergarten on Friday) in a school district where their disabilities are recognized and their education plans catered to their needs. To work with such gifted teachers, therapists, aides and case managers is a privilege, I know, and must be a gift from God. It not only makes life with autism possible, it helps me to grow as their additional parent-therapist.
Sarah! What a wonderful list of things to be thankful for. I’m so glad you shared them, and so glad you had a lovely vacation and that your return flight was untroubled by behavior issues (often on long flights, I must confess, I am the one who has behavior issues). Praising God with you for the amazing support system you have to help you parent your children well. Much love to you, friend!
I’m grateful for your ongoing prompting to journal my gratitude : ) I’m grateful for a safe 4-day bike ride – the absolutely stunning mountains that rose up all around us were a good reminder of the Creator and of my small place in creation. I’m grateful for health and the legs to carry me on the journey. And I’m especially grateful for a supportive husband who encourages me to do things outside my normal, comfortable rut.
Ah, yes, I have a husband like that, too. But I must confess that sometimes I’m not as grateful for the rut-busting as I perhaps should be 🙂
So glad you had an amazing bike-trip…and that you’re home safely.
Hi Kimberlee — So good to read another reminder to thank God for his good and perfect gifts!
I love starting our prayer duing worship with a time for thanksgiving, but one thing that came to mind as I read this post was that the “deafening silence” doesn’t mean there are not many prayers of thanksgiving happening silently. My prayers of thanksgiving tend to be very specific to my famiy or my experiences and I usually find myself not wanting to share them out loud in worship because it almost feels like announcing “this is how great things in MY life are this week” rather than expressing my gratitude to God. Silent prayers of thanksgiving feel much more genuine and meaningful to me.
Lauraleigh, thanks so much for these words. It’s helpful to hear about the quiet prayers that are happening all over the sanctuary in those moments.
After reading your comment, I began to wonder if I take it as a sign that I’ve failed in my duties as a worship leader when people don’t speak out their prayers of thanksgiving or petition. As I write this, I am realizing (again!) that it’s no reflection on me/my worship leading if people choose to pray silently, that it’s not even about me and my words. I am grateful for your words here that bring me back to this place of acknowledging that prayer is God’s work, through me, through each and all of us, yes, but not because of us. Sigh. God has been trying really hard to make this clear to me of late; I think I’m actually starting to clue in 🙂