Thanks for nothing. Thanks for everything.

“If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?” 1 Corinthians 10:30 NIV

Thanksgiving will be celebrated this week. We will have a small gathering at our house. My wife will start cooking on Tuesday and we will be well stocked. One of my favorite traditions happens during the meal. We go around the table and simply state what we are thankful for. The only rule is that you cannot say “Family” or “Friends”. Jordyn made up that rule because she did not like it when everyone would say the same thing.

I was thinking today about the origins of the holiday. I am not a history buff, but the first settlers in our country set aside a day to celebrate all they had to be thankful for. At the time, they were in the middle of a large-scale effort to establish a new country. Nothing was easy. They faced extreme work, sickness, death, poverty and struggles in literally every area of life. Why were they so thankful they stopped to celebrate? The struggles they faced laid a foundation to bless people they would never meet.

Do blessings have to be positive? I heard a message from our pastor once on the topic of being specific when asking God to bless you. His point was that if I prayed a blanket, “please bless my family” that I might be confused if one of us ended us with a severe illness when God had plans for the illness to bless us with a better perspective of what is important.

I think I can often state things for which I am thankful. My wife, my kids, my job, my home, my health, etc. I know that I am blessed. However, I realize that I can be guilty of thinking of the blessing itself as the point only if it is a positive. Side note, one day after writing that last sentence, I sold over a week’s production by around 4:00 in the afternoon – on Monday. I felt “Blessed”. But Tuesday afternoon a lack of sales that day had me already grumbling. When I do this, I am missing something. “Lack” and “Struggle” are not fun words, but they are essential.

What if God in His infinite ability had a conversation with me while inside the womb. He could have laid out two scenarios. Option one, you can have a wife, two pretty normal kids and an otherwise normal life. You will feel loved. Or option two, you can have three kids, one of which will have autism and one of which I will take home early. It’s going to hurt like nothing you can imagine, but I am going to use it – over and over and over to reach people. You will have to search for and rely on me daily to get through it but you will feel Me. Take your pick.

I think that makes it sound like an easy choice. I would not wish Jordyn out of existence for anything. I would pick the pain over the lack of existence every time. We have seen God use her life and her death over and over in spite of it only being 16 years. I am also not sure that I would wish autism out of Korbin either, to be honest. His life may not measure up to an earthly standard, but I have never met someone who exudes peace like him. He worries about nothing and has an ability to read people that seems supernatural. God has used him over and over in spite of an obvious lack of normal. Aly has experienced both death and struggle and has turned herself into one of most kind and compassionate people to ever walk this earth. Seriously. She is almost annoyingly kind. “Dad, use kind words!” God has used her over and over and she will reach hundreds of kids over her career.

So, as you sit down to eat that Thanksgiving meal ask God for some perspective. Everything good you have in life may be designed to reach you or others around you. The very thing you lack in life may be the exact way God is blessing you. The negative thing you have in life might also be the way God is blessing you. Either one may also be the way He is reaching someone you may not even know.

What thing, or situation, in your life could God be using to reach you or others? Positive situations are easy to recognize, but how many of those things seem negative?

Even if it causes you to struggle, what thing, or situation, that you lack could actually be a gift from God?

Challenge: Be aware of both possibilities. Be thankful for either.

Rick Claiborn