Can I Persevere in Daily Gratitude as a Matter of Obedience?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Even in this season of the empty nest, I value its uncomplicated requirement of gathering with loved ones, preparing a meal featuring everyone’s favorites, and cultivating a spirit of gratitude to carry throughout the year.

Of course, that last one can be a little challenging, right? I keep catching myself this year casting a longing glance back over my shoulder at years of perfect attendance around my table when full family gatherings didn’t require intricate choreography.

The question that nags and will not be ignored is this:

Can I be thankful NOW?

Knowing what I know about the sovereignty of God and the blessing that comes after the patient submission to his process of growing my faith, can I practice gratitude in my current circumstances?

I’m not interested in a bait and switch in which I light a candle, practice a brand of skillful denial of the obvious circumstances, and then declare myself patient or grateful–at least for the moment. According to the Apostle Paul, gratitude is more than a spontaneous response or a pumpkin-spice feeling. It is a matter of obedience to the will of God.

Gratitude is an Everyday Choice

Author and poet Wendell Berry put words into the mouth of a fictional, elderly widow named Hannah Coulter who, in addition to being a crackerjack farmhand when needed (and probably making a great pie crust), also had a firm handle on her biblical theology:

You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this:
‘Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.’
I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.”

Following the Instructions for Gratitude

In this season of gratitude and pumpkin lattes, I will be focusing on those “right instructions,” knowing full well that I, too, am “not all the way capable of so much.” And yet this business of obedience to the Spirit of God is not to be confused with Operation Bootstrap. It is, rather, an operation by which “the very God of peace will sanctify me wholly" through purposeful rejoicing in what is given and a prayer life that images the inhale and exhale of breathing.

Rolling into November, perhaps your greatest challenge is deciding between pumpkin and apple pie on the day of the feast.** Or maybe God is choosing this season to grow you through adversity that requires more faith than you seem to have right now. Either way, let’s return to the words of Paul in the way we turn to our recipe for fool-proof gravy, knowing that even though we are not “all the way capable,” the instructions are good, for they are absolutely true, and they are given to us with love:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (I Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV)

**P.S. My advice: Go for a small slice of each.