God knows a secret about us. We are forgetful people. We quickly grow dull and ho hum about the blessings of life. I know I do. I sometimes feel like I am suffering from some sort of spiritual amnesia. And so, my grateful heart withers, and my joy is quickly gone.
Yes, this is our tendency. When we are in trouble, feeling lost, confused, in pain, we cry out to the Lord for help and deliverance. But when things are going well and we are comfortable and cozy, we take things for granted, and we forget the giver of the gifts.
Fortunately for us, God provides abundant means to help us remember his goodness. In the Jewish tradition, probably the most memorized words of Scripture are found in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-12). Moses recites the essential truths and blessings of the Lord, then ends with a warning: “And when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
The Hebrew Festivals were times of remembering, times to give thanks, and therefore times of great joy. They were designed to help people remember the Lord’s goodness and blessing. For example, the Festival of Tabernacles was a harvest festival, and a time to remember how God provided for them when they wandered in tents through the desert.
13 Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. 15 For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. (Deut. 16:11-15)
The Hebrew festivals were calls to remember God’s great acts of redemption.
- Remember that you were slaves in Egypt
- Remember how I saved you and delivered you out of Egypt
- Remember that you wandered 40 years in the wilderness
- Remember how I provided food and water for you in the wilderness
- Remember the many harvests that you enjoyed at my hand.
This Feast of Tabernacles is sort of a precursor to our Thanksgiving. The A
merican Festival of Thanksgiving still boasts the most travel, for gathering of families, of all the holidays. And for some of us, it is a festival that may run for several days. It was originally designed as a harvest festival to give thanks for God’s bountiful provision of food, shelter, families, and multiple blessings.
I have become more aware that I clearly need these regular established times of remembering with thanksgiving. So, for me, mealtimes are natural opportunities to give thanks to God for his generous provision. Honestly, I had become lax and repetitious with this practice. Lately, I have been using this opportunity to remember that “every good and perfect gift comes from above” (James 1:17), and so I give thanks for food and other recent displays of God’s good gifts. “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (I Timothy 4:4). We can sanctify these gifts with our thankful prayers. Let’s not allow these, 3-times-daily, opportunities slip by us. Make it real, make it sincere, and feel the joy flood into your life.
Finally, I was listening again the other day to a lecture by Brene Brown (author of Daring Greatly). She has a lot to say about joy and gratitude. She noted that when things are going very well in our lives—our job is good, our home is good, our children are doing well, we are surrounded by loyal friends—her studies show that instead of basking in the joy of our circumstances, 90% of us begin to think, “Oh, no this can’t last! What could go wrong? When will the other shoe drop?” And we begin to worry and imagine all sorts of catastrophic events that may come our way. I know this routine. This is, of course, a pathetic way to live. I will come back to this topic of worry and anxiety, but what struck me, in Brene Brown’s presentation is that she said the best antidote to this kind of worry is . . . gratefulness. Yep, that’s it. Sure, things can go wrong, and hard times will come. But the key is to live in the moment, to let ourselves be grateful and joyful now for these good things. Soak up the sunshine of this day rather than worrying about the clouds that will come.
Surely, if we believe in a God who is good and trustworthy, we can revel in these good gifts even though they may be passing. And we can trust him to carry us through whatever trials that may come.
On a scale of one to ten, how is your gratefulness meter? Which of these practices could you make a regular part of your daily life right now?
These posts have remarkably good timing.
My 3:00 a.m. lie awake and worry routine has reared its ugly head recently. I am going to focus on joy and gratitude. Thank you!