Real Life

I've been thinking a lot about thankfulness lately, but when I last posted and I said there there was more to come soon on thankfulness, I had no idea what the Lord had around the corner within less than twenty-four hours. . . .


Saturday became one of those days when I needed to sing, when I just needed to break loose and be really thankful.  “It was a perfect day?” you ask?  Well, let’s just say that it didn't exactly go as I had expected.  The path to where I landed began in the emergency room, and most times, when that happens, you’re likely to end up in a place you weren’t anticipating to be when the day began.  Anybody else ever had a day like that?


I don’t just mean a day where your path leads through the emergency room.  I mean any day where something unexpected or potentially overwhelming happens. . . . Maybe your calling looms larger than you are. . . or maybe when discouragement over not making enough progress bars the path to a place or time to relax with contentment. . . or when you long to be free of a particular struggle so you could be able to joyfully embrace life without feeling as though life itself would crush you first.  Anybody know what I’m talking about?

Though it does seem counterintuitive, those are the days when we most need to sing.   That’s right.  And to be thankful.  In our Father’s Word to us, this is what I find.  “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me. . . . He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me; and to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”  Psalm 50:14, 15, 23.

This sacrifice of thanksgiving.  It has always puzzled me, for how can expressing thanks be a sacrifice?

I think it's because it requires something of me, and is a gift to Him.  It pleases Him and He deserves it.  That would be reason enough, but there’s more.

Thanksgiving, for my part, (God is so smart!) reverses my focus, back to where it belongs.  Frustration or fear takes me in one direction, but thankfulness takes me in the opposite direction.  It’s thanksgiving that puts me back on track.

“And let the peace of Christ rules in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”  Colossians 3:15

“Le the word of Christ richly dwell in you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”  Colossians 3:16

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”  Colossians 3:17

When whatever shade of the gray ‘overwhelmed’ cloud looms over me, its showers threatening to drown me, I need to get under His wings, in the shelter of the Most High, in the shadow of the Almighty (see Psalm 91), and be thankful.  No, things are not hopeless!  I am not without strength, His strength!

He goes before me;

He walks beside me;

He lives within Me; He’s the lover of my soul.

He’s my Defender;

He’s my Provider;

His overflowing mercies are brand new everyday.  

(That's part of a song called This is the Day by Bob Fitts.)

And that’s what I sang Saturday night at the hospital in the room where my dear husband slept after having had his appendix taken out.  “It was a very bad appendix,” to quote the doctor.  The list of ways the Lord orchestrated the situation to keep him alive is too long for this post , or this would be my longest post ever.  (later, Lord willing)

Suffice it to say for now that God is the lifter of my head.  I put my hope in Him.  And not just because he saved my husband's life, but because, no matter what happens, He loves me, He has forgiven me because of Christ, and He will never abandon me.  It doesn't get any better than that.

P.S.  The writer of the letter to Philippians and his friend found themselves in an unexpected situation, too, when they first came to Philippi and ended up in jail for freeing a girl from a demon.  They chose to praise God with singing in prison.  Do you remember what happened?  You can use the Search the Bible tool on the right to look up 'Acts 16:11-40' if you want to see the amazing outcome.