Thankfulness is different for me than others, I would suppose. I often wonder that thankfulness is supposed to be about warm gatherings around the fire and laughter filling the house. Those things are wonderful and those things do fill my heart with thanksgiving. However, thankfulness is different for me. It is a deeper understanding of the greater things in my life. Being thankful for loving family and a warm home and friends is amazing, but it seems to fall short when I come to the place of true thankfulness. To me, true thankfulness, is in my sufferings – those things that have brought me pain. There, I have found real thanksgiving for all things.
Why would a God that loves me so much allow suffering in my life? I’m not just talking about what others have done, but also what I have done to destroy my own life at times. Why would He allow people to hurt me, disappointment me, let me down? I believe it is because true thankfulness comes out of the desperate pain of our lives. It is when we can say, I can truly give thanks in all things, that we find true thankfulness and peace.
So, I am truly thankful for the wonderful things and the not so wonderful things. For how would I fully know the truest love of Christ without experiencing the betrayal of others? How would I fully realize the joy of the Lord when I have not fully discovered the disappointment of others? The stark contrast between disappointments and the truest Love of the Lord is a wonderful display of true thankfulness. When I realized that no one will ever meet my every need and make me truly happy, I was able to see that there is One who will – Jesus Christ. I don’t mean this as just a “cute, Christian-way” of accepting pain. I mean it as a real, available, gritty, example of true living. Finding Christ in the depths of our disappointments is a beautiful process of His true love. He never disappoints, He never forgets me, He always reminds me of the places of my pain as he touches them and the scars of grace appear.
Just a reminder of the true meaning of Thankfulness… as far as I am concerned.
Why would a God that loves me so much allow suffering in my life? I’m not just talking about what others have done, but also what I have done to destroy my own life at times. Why would He allow people to hurt me, disappointment me, let me down? I believe it is because true thankfulness comes out of the desperate pain of our lives. It is when we can say, I can truly give thanks in all things, that we find true thankfulness and peace.
So, I am truly thankful for the wonderful things and the not so wonderful things. For how would I fully know the truest love of Christ without experiencing the betrayal of others? How would I fully realize the joy of the Lord when I have not fully discovered the disappointment of others? The stark contrast between disappointments and the truest Love of the Lord is a wonderful display of true thankfulness. When I realized that no one will ever meet my every need and make me truly happy, I was able to see that there is One who will – Jesus Christ. I don’t mean this as just a “cute, Christian-way” of accepting pain. I mean it as a real, available, gritty, example of true living. Finding Christ in the depths of our disappointments is a beautiful process of His true love. He never disappoints, He never forgets me, He always reminds me of the places of my pain as he touches them and the scars of grace appear.
Just a reminder of the true meaning of Thankfulness… as far as I am concerned.
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