Live a Thankful Faith

I wrote the following for Encompass Ministries’ Community Spirit Magazine November issue. It is Thanksgiving thematic, but thankfulness is a way of life not bound by a holiday. May these thoughts transform your 2021.

Our family gathers each year, 10 plus or minus, around the Thanksgiving table. A few years ago someone thought it would be a good idea to circle, hold hands, and share one thing we are thankful for. Caught off-guard, 20 deer-wide eyes looked side-to-side, down, up – anywhere but making eye contact with someone else. The atmosphere embarrassed. Awkward. Health was the most common answer. Family. Jobs.

I know those answers were true. Those are blessed gifts from God and it is right to be thankful for them, but in that moment they seemed the easy way out. Is this the best we could do? I wondered why we stammered over naming one heart-felt blessing from God.

The turmoil of 2020 has wreaked such havoc we might be tempted to declare there is not much to be thankful for this year. In the shadow of life disrupted, postponed, canceled, and lost, we hold pent up breath ready to exhale on January 1,2021. When we gather around that table this year, will our biggest expression of thankfulness be that the year is almost over?

I hope not and believe we can do better. We have just been stymied. What is our greatest obstacle to living out the type of faith Paul describes when he writes “be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thes 5:16-18)? Is it simply that we don’t practice thankfulness and in the process we lose sight of God’s love for us?

In her book, One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp delves into the mystery of eucharisteo – “giving thanks” – as the centerpiece of faith.

We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our YES! to His grace…. Thanksgiving – giving thanks in everything – is what prepares the way for salvation’s whole restoration. Our salvation in Christ is real, yet the completeness of that salvation is not fully realized in a life until the life realizes the need to give thanks.

Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 39, 40.

This word, eucharisteo, is translated as “give thanks” but it abounds with deeper meaning. Formed by combing eu, meaning “well, well done” and chairo meaning “to rejoice, be delighted” we begin to understand that Paul is not advising a perfunctory Thank You. Just preceding Paul’s urging to give thanks, he says be joyful, or in some translations “Rejoice” always” using the same word: chairo. So it might read “Chairo always, pray continually, eucharisteo in all circumstances.

Bear with me for one more Greek lesson. Digging ever slightly deeper we discover the derivatives charis and chara. Charis describes God’s grace, his kindness and favor toward us, his gifts. Chara means joy, gladness.

This one word eucharisteo embodies the whole of gratitude, rejoicing, God’s graces, and joy. It is the key to the full life as a follower of Christ and it is possible even now. But how?

God’s graces are all of the ways God expresses his love for us. A thankful faith is built on recognizing and naming the first expression of love given through Jesus Christ. A living thankful faith has eyes open and ears attuned to recognize delight in the myriad moments our heart is quickened and our spirit is lifted as we pause and take in bluebirds on the feeder, clouds painting a canvas, dancing dogs meeting us at the door, or the prompting to pray as we imagine the stories of people we see but never meet – like the family, car loaded, where might they be headed? Lord keep them safe.

Maybe our struggle stems from thinking our thankfulness must be “right” – profound, poetic, deep. In our effort to come up with the big, right, things, we miss all the small things and in the process we miss God.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul expressed his prayer that Christ dwell in their hearts through faith and that they would grasp the edgeless magnitude of Christ’s love for them so that they would be filled to overflowing with the fullness of God. He used a lot of words to say, I’m praying that you know God more in your every day experiences.    

What might happen if, when our eyes opened first thing, we tuned into our hearts instead of the news. What if we prayed, Lord, help me know you more today, open my eyes to the ways you show your charis to me.

Anything that pauses you long enough to recognize a sense of joy, wonder, delight, contentment, peace – these are gifts from God to you – his charis, his expressions of love. God’s gifts will be unique to you. Pause long enough to soak it in, name it – Lord, eucharisteo for puppy breath – and experience the fullness of God, his joy (chara), his presence in that moment. A personal, delightful exchange between you and God who loves you. The more we name, the more we look for ways to practice eucharisteo, the more our faith will be a thankful faith. We won’t be tongue-tied in the moment. It’ll be second nature.

When you are gathered around your table this year and it’s your turn to share something you are thankful for, I hope you’ll forego the tried and true “family” and astound everyone with something like “I give thanks to God for the freckles on Suzie’s nose that squinch up when she laughs because they remind me she is fearfully and wonderfully made.” I dare ya.

I am praying for you in 2021. May you experience joyful thanksgiving!

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