A Higher Thanks

Thanksgiving is short lived, if lived at all, in North American culture.  If you have followed sports on TV much over the past two decades you know exactly what I mean when I say “media timeout,” or perhaps “TV timeout.”  It’s the point in the game when the play has gone on so long that commercial sponsors are nearly missing their spot to advertise so the television network whistles for a break to stop the clock and cut away to commercials.  Well, that’s kind of what Thanksgiving has begun to feel like in America.  I suspect heads will both nod and shack when I suggest Thanksgiving day has become little more than a pause in the action of defense and offense; working and shopping, making money and spending money.  A sort of two minute necessary timeout – rest even – to advertise for the marathon that has become Black Friday…and, hey, while we have this consumer induced time we may as well huddle up (get the family together), grab a drink (eat turkey and stuffing), and put together a game plan for the next play (strategize where to go first for the best deals).

Now, if you’re offended at this point in the post, instead of my suggesting you stop reading, I would encourage you to continue.  I won’t promise that’s as heavy as it gets.  But I will promise the weight of what follows is far more bearable than the weight of what you just read.  By way of introduction, or at least to set you back off the edge of your seat, what this is not is a history lesson on Thanksgiving and why we should lay down the sale flyers, turn off the TV, and resurrect the nostalgia of a Norman Rockwell painting.  Neither is this a lambasting for taking advantage of Black Friday deals, and even using some time the day before – which is Thanksgiving, by the way – to plan out your trip.  Nope, this is neither of those.  What this is, is a reflection on a higher thanks.

By “higher” I mean our aim.  It’s easy to aim at the nearest target.  Point the arrow at the center, pull back the string, let go, done.  It’s difficult to aim at the farthest target.  It becomes more technical.  Now you have to think, perhaps even guess a bit, and raise the trajectory of the bow to compensate for the distance between you and the target and the pull of gravity over that span.  Though you aren’t pointing directly at the target anymore, you shoot farther and still hit your mark because your aim was higher.  Follow me?  Below are merely some reflections on a thanks that is higher; a thanks that goes farther – farther than a single day to be sure – and a thanks that hits the mark, achieves a more spectacular intention, difficult as it may be.

A Higher Thanks has God in sight, not just in mind.  Beginning in Ephesians 1:3, and running all the way through verse 14, is one of Paul’s classic run-on sentences.  In the English text we break it down into bite size pieces, 4 or 5 sentences depending on the version you use.  But honestly, I’m not sure Paul could have declared what he did in fewer words.  In fact, it should surprise us that he was able to capture it in the parchment page space he did.

He opens with the clarion declaration in verse 3:  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”  From there, Paul proceeds to thoroughly confuse the reader by burying them in pronouns that refer either to God the Father or Christ Jesus, depending on context.  To be sure, Paul’s outset statement above, however, is the driving subject in the text, and most of the pronouns filter back to “the God and Father” of Christ Jesus.  And though the reader is at the heart of the passage, even the object appears to be God.  For at the end of it all – after we learn of our innumerable blessings in Christ from God, and our immeasurable value unto being chosen by God, and our redemption through Christ’s blood and forgiveness of sin, and the lavish riches of God’s grace to us, and the breadth of wisdom and insight and revelation of God’s mysterious will offered to us, and (stop here and take a breath…there’s more) God’s plan to unite all things in Christ Jesus,  and an eternal inheritance from God complete with the seal of the Holy Spirit of God born upon us and in us as our guarantee for acquiring possession of said inheritance (whew, you made it) – at the end of all that, Paul spins the reader around, points upward and says it is all “to the praise of [God’s] glory.”  Beautiful statement, huh?  Love it!

But that is all beside the point…sort of.  In verse 16 Paul says, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…” and he goes on to encourage them in their faith.  But stop on the “give thanks” part.  Verse 15 tells us that Paul had heard of the faith of the Ephesians and their love for each other, but taken in context, Paul ceaselessly gives thanks for these people because he has caught on to the fact that all God has done through Christ Jesus for them – and for us – that he rambled off in the previous 11 verses, which bore in them an increasing faith and a generating love, was and is “to the praise of His glory,” and nothing is grander or higher than that.  Paul’s endless thanksgiving is to God for God’s eternal and high purposes that have worked in them – and us – to the increase of faith and generation of love, but even more “to the praise of His glory.”  And our thanks ought to be as such.

Thus, this year, as you gather for Thanksgiving in your varying locations with varying intents, do not merely keep God in mind as you give thanks to him for those you love.  Be intentional to express a higher thanks; a thanks that has God in sight as well as in mind.  It is more than merely thanking Him for our spouse, our kids, our friends, etc.  It is thanking Him for His purposes and intentions worked out in those we love.  Thus, I might have prayed, “Dear God, thank you for my beautiful wife.”  Now, however, I might pray…and most certainly will pray, “Dear God, thank you for the freedom in Christ Jesus you have born in my wife this year and the joy that springs forth from her to others on account of you and your glory.”  See the difference.  Do it.  Be intentional and specific.  Aim higher with your thanks.

A Higher Thanks includes our weaknesses, not just our strengths.  The paradox of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 is not unlike others we find in Scripture.  Jesus says “the first shall be last and the last first” and “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  So we aren’t that surprised when Paul says “when I am weak, then I am strong,” right?  Of course we aren’t.  But it is certainly easier to read than to live, isn’t it?

To insure Paul remain humble in light of the profound revelations he had received and written down, now preserved for us in scripture, “a thorn was given [him] in the flesh.” (2 Cor. 12:7)  It’s not clear what the “thorn” was, but Paul attributes it to Satan, so I bet it wasn’t pleasant.  Ever had a thorn in the flesh, a real biggie trial of endurance?  I have.  A couple two or three this year even.  I bet yours came not long after a “sweet spot” season of life too?  Mine did.  And not surprisingly…or it shouldn’t have been surprising anyway…God’s grace; the unmerited release of His limitless love, upheld me and carried me (and my family) through the trials as it were.  Paul expressed this in verse 9, that though he pleaded with God to make it all just go away – bet you’ve done that…I have, in raised voice even – God’s answer was clear:  “My grace is sufficient for you…”  But that wasn’t the end of it.  There was more.  God told him why, which we don’t always get, do we?  God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

For the first time just weeks ago, right after votes were in and counted in fact, I caught an implied assumption in that final statement.  If, when I am trudging through a season of weakness, the power of Christ is made perfect; which is to say as Paul does in his next statement, “the power of Christ [rests] on me,” then when I am striding through a season of strength, the power of Christ is less than perfect.  Really?  Well, yes…in a sense.

The emphasis in the context is depicted in ones posture of heart.  In seasons of strength; seasons of life that glide by smoothly without bump or buckle, seasons that tend to lull us into assuming a hands and heart posture of self-reliance, in those seasons the power of Christ is less than enlivened and operative in us, per our hearts request.  Conversely, in seasons of weakness; seasons of life that appear to spin out of control and cast our best efforts of gaining control as efforts of futility, seasons that force our hands as well as our hearts up in surrender, in those seasons the power of Christ is most fully enlivened and operative or “perfect,” and actually resting upon or at work in us.

Isn’t that amazing!  Do you hear in God’s reply to Paul – and to us – a reason to give thanks in our weaknesses?  But it’s not a common thanks by any means, is it?  Generally people don’t give thanks on Thanksgiving Day or any other day for their “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamitites” (Paul’s list from verse 10).  Nor do they – we – give thanks for pain or hurt or discipline or disaster.  We are not quick to give thanks for a lost job or an empty table or a broken relationship or a lonely holiday or an overwhelming diagnosis or a devastated landscape.  Nope, we are not at all.  Because these generate weakness and we would just assume weakness be a stranger.  But if the power of Christ resting on us is really the fall out, ought we not give thanks to God for it?

C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter to Don Giovanni Calabria, an Italian Catholic priest, now sainted by Pope John Paul II, “We ought to give thanks for all fortune:  if it is ‘good,’ because it is good, if it is ‘bad’ because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and hope of our eternal country.”  That kind of thanks is no common thanks, but rather a higher thanks of course.  A thanks that is quieter and meeker in tone, but thanks none-the-less.

A Higher Thanks reflected in a Psalm.  Most of the time we need less of what you just read and more examples.  Most of the time we need fewer fingers pointing at us and more fingers pointing the way for us.  To be clear, I am not pointing any fingers here.  If I am, they are pointing at me.  But, I would be remiss to not point a finger in a way for you; a practice or application to guide you in your higher thanks.  And I have found no better source than the Psalms in the Bible, each inspired by Him to whom you give higher thanks to.

This past season, The Branch | an emerging adult community, which is a group of 18-30ish year olds not all that different than you and I, have moseyed through a study of particular events in the life of David that correspond to particular Psalms written by David during those events.  I would commend to you this list as a practical starting point.  The events in principle relate trials and joys not all that different than those we endure and experience.  The Psalms demonstrate the inner attitude of David in the midst of the events.  Interesting to see them align…but you’ll need to look hard at some of them.

·         1 Samuel 19:11-17 à Psalm 59

·         1 Samuel 21:1-15 à Psalm 34

·         1 Samuel 22:1-2 à Psalm 57, 142

·         1 Samuel 22:11-23 à Psalm 52

·         1 Samuel 23:13-29 à Psalm 54

·         1 Samuel 29:1-11 à Psalm 56

·         2 Samuel 8:1-18 à Psalm 60

·         2 Samuel 11:1 – 12:25 à Psalm 51

·         2 Samuel 15:1-37 à Psalm 3

·         2 Samuel 17:1-29 à Psalm 63

·         2 Samuel 20:1-26 à Psalm 7

·         2 Samuel 22:1-51 à Psalm 18 (parallel)

As well, I would simple commend to you David’s prayer of thanks in 2 Samuel 7:18-29 (here from the New Living Translation):

¹⁸ Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and prayed, "Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?  ¹⁹ And now, Sovereign LORD, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty! Do you deal with everyone this way, O Sovereign LORD?  ²⁰ "What more can I say to you? You know what your servant is really like, Sovereign LORD.  ²¹ Because of your promise and according to your will, you have done all these great things and have made them known to your servant.  ²² "How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you!  ²³ What other nation on earth is like your people Israel? What other nation, O God, have you redeemed from slavery to be your own people? You made a great name for yourself when you redeemed your people from Egypt. You performed awesome miracles and drove out the nations and gods that stood in their way.  ²⁴ You made Israel your very own people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.  ²⁵ "And now, O LORD God, I am your servant; do as you have promised concerning me and my family. Confirm it as a promise that will last forever.  ²⁶ And may your name be honored forever so that everyone will say, 'The LORD of Heaven's Armies is God over Israel!' And may the house of your servant David continue before you forever.  ²⁷ "O LORD of Heaven's Armies, God of Israel, I have been bold enough to pray this prayer to you because you have revealed all this to your servant, saying, 'I will build a house for you-- a dynasty of kings!'  ²⁸ For you are God, O Sovereign LORD. Your words are truth, and you have promised these good things to your servant.  ²⁹ And now, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you have spoken, and when you grant a blessing to your servant, O Sovereign LORD, it is an eternal blessing!"

There, see…that wasn’t so bad after all, was it?  Listen, no matter your pursuits on this long weekend; a weekend including both the seemingly ancient holiday of Thanksgiving and the more contemporary apparent holiday of Black Friday, my commendation is simply to go for the farthest target (not Target, if you catch me).  Aim for a higher thanks; a thanks that goes farther – farther than a single day to be sure – and a thanks that hits the mark, achieves a more spectacular intention, difficult as it may be.