In light of the recent tragic shooting in Aurora, CO and in light of my constant running across people who have been so badly hurt by life (victims of physical and sexual abuse, victims of neglect and poverty, and on and on), I thought about writing some thoughts about God's sovereignty. God doesn't cause evil by "allowing" evil to happen, yet many Christians seem confused by how to reconcile a good, loving and sovereign God with the presence of terrible evil in our current existence. But then I remembered that I did write something about this not too long after my own brush with evil. Yes, I have a few more thoughts to add to what I wrote then, but I will wait until later for that. For now, I just edited the previous article and offer you this link if you want to see what I wrote back then.
So for today, I choose to write about one of my favorite (and sometimes forgotten!) weapons: gratitude.
But before I write about this remarkably simple and effective weapon, please consider the following. It has occurred to me more than once that my writing about these (truly different) weapons might cause some folks to start "working on their weapons." That would be a travesty and would lead them completely away from how these weapons are formed and work. You can't "do" the weapon of peace or "use" the weapon of simplicity or generosity. Rather the whole point of my highlighting how different our weapons are is to to make it clear that intimacy with God is the source of our "weaponry," and anything that moves us towards self-focus or self-effort--trying harder--is missing the point entirely. Some of you, I am sure, have noticed by now that many of the weapons sound remarkably similar to the fruit of the Spirit :-) That is intentional, of course, because the unique power of these weapons rests in their being "divine" and rooted in the character of God. So none of these weapons are effective if wielded by human effort. Trying to make yourself peaceful, force yourself to be generous, make yourself embrace simplicity, etc., will not release God's peace or love into a situation! I will write more about how these weapons are formed, but for now I suggest that you consider what I wrote in the first article in this series: these weapons are formed and sharpened as we learn to live loved, listening, saturated and surrendered in community with other believers.
But now, consider with me the very streamlined and powerful weapon of gratitude (thankfulness). This has to be one of the simplest weapons in our arsenal. It's relatively easy to activate, too, consisting basically of a Holy Spirit-empowered decision to shift one's focus ever so slightly :-) from whining to giving thanks. This weapon popped up for me personally this past week as God quite literally interrupted my whining about all the change in my life to suggest that I would do better to start listing all the good things that have come because of it. I cannot tell you how different the world looked after a few minutes of doing so!
I should note here, I think, that giving thanks, having an "attitude of gratitude," doesn't mean discounting our pain or short-circuiting necessary grieving over loss. Rather it is more like choosing to superimpose a larger and greater reality over the pain. This reality has two parts, at least, I think: 1) the immediate fact that even in the darkness some light is present (counting blessings in the midst of the storm or seeing the small flower blooming in the prison yard, etc.), and 2) the eternal perspective in which God redeems everything (it occurred to me this week that the vast majority of our lives will be lived in eternity, not in this present existence--Big thought!). Timing has something to do with this, too. It's truly unkind to tell someone who has just suffered great loss to "give thanks" and just "praise God"! The human soul needs time to heal, and "choosing to give thanks" at a time when Papa is trying to heal a broken heart, simply holding His child while s/he cries, is counterproductive. But when He begins to whisper the invitation to give thanks, the earlier we choose to respond, the better!
There are many scriptures about this, of course. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 particularly comes to mind. I commend to you a study of the words thanks and thanksgiving in your electronic Bible :-) But for now, see if Papa doesn't say something to you as He did to me this week, about picking up the weapon of gratitude.
Learning again to give thanks,
Tom, one of Abba's little children
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