Being thankful in life is something that a lot of people talk a lot about, and especially at Thanksgiving. But you know, sometimes, it isn’t as easy as it looks. Or as easy as it is to say it. There are plenty of articles and social media posts and blog posts and sermons and anything else you can think of telling you to look at the good things in life and be grateful for them no matter what else is going on.
But what if you don’t want to? What if you just don’t feel like it? There are those years, you know, because we are human. Those years when it just feels like there is nothing to be grateful for, even if we know intellectually that we should be. The years when getting together with family is more a job than a blessing. The years when everything seemed to go wrong. When you don’t know what’s next. When it feels like God was never further away. When those articles about gratitude fuel resentment instead of peace.
So what do you do in those years? What then? What if you just don’t want to sit there and think about how you know you are supposed to be grateful that Aunt Mabel is still there and well, but all you can remember is how she treated your child the previous year and now you feel guilty as well as angry?
Go to a room, or a coffee shop, or a corner, or anyplace by yourself and tell God. I’m serious. Shout it at Him if you want. He already knows anyway. You might as well get it off your chest and just tell Him that you don’t feel grateful this year because of x, y, and z. And you know what? He is going to love you anyway. He is going to love that you came to Him to unburden yourself. He is not going to leave you.
And remember–even David, a man after God’s own heart, complained to him. “How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” and then, after complaining, he’d always reach similar conclusions, “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing until the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” (Psalm 13)
You might not reach the gratitude part quite as fast as David always seemed to, but that’s okay. Because God doesn’t expect you to be David. He expects you to be the you that He created.
And then, when you are done informing God of exactly how you feel, go find something small to be grateful for. And I mean TINY. A bird chirping. The sun in the sky. A floating snowflake. Something that is completely and utterly out of your control, but you can still appreciate. And then go to your Thanksgiving knowing that even if you can’t be thankful this year for the things everyone says you should, there are still things you are thankful for, no matter how small, and this season in your life won’t last forever.
And that, my friends, is called hope.
Forest Idylls 