Giving thanks gives strength to the soul

More than 30 years ago a Thanksgiving Day speaker at an elementary school assembly caught my attention with the unique suggestion that we should be thankful not only for what we have, but also for what we have not. At first his remark made no sense, but after he listed some of the things he was thankful to be without, it clicked. Measles is one item I remember from his list.

I’ll always be grateful for this thought-provoking comment because the idea he implanted has continued to condition my thinking, even though it often runs contrary to my first instincts. I call it the principle of inverse thanksgiving–finding something to be thankful for in whatever circumstance you find yourself.

I remember in late September a few years ago how I complained about carrots. Carrots had grown well in our garden that year–so well that those orange, edible roots went down deep and grew really fat; so well that they crowded each other and became intertwined and very difficult to pull; and so many that it took a much larger part of my Saturday afternoon than I wanted to spend harvesting and cleaning carrots. In the midst of this toil I caught myself in the most unedifying position of complaining about a bountiful garden.

Complaining comes easy

Complaining comes easily to me. The same week that I was so down on carrots, I also complained about how unfair life can be. A close friend, a co-worker, was stricken with a very sudden and severe illness that within a year had claimed her life.

Shortly thereafter I found myself complaining about work pressures–routine stuff of the sort that faces anyone who works with deadlines. In the midst of this process I grumbled about taking time to help someone new to the city move into an apartment, and I even remember arguing with an action the government had either taken or wasn’t taking on Canada’s national unity conundrum. All in a day’s work.

But somewhere along the line during the week I’ve just described, the principle of inverse thanksgiving managed to break through. How? The sweat and inconvenience of Saturday afternoon carrot pulling became cause to think of all the gifts of the garden. At the very least I could be thankful that I don’t have the work of harvesting all my food.

It also dawned on me that the shock I felt when I discovered that my friend and co-worker had a totally debilitating disease indicated that such misfortune doesn’t touch so close very often. Good health, at least among most of the people I know, is the norm–something we usually take for granted. That’s a heavy item on the thankfulness scale.

It was a little harder to find something to be grateful about with the next item on my litany of complaints–feeling obliged to help a friend move. Moving furniture or household effects is almost everyone’s idea of a necessary evil–necessary because shelter is something we all require, and evil because moving is invariably inconvenient and tends to find muscles that don’t otherwise get exercised regularly. But it also implies that the mover has a place to stay. I’m thankful I don’t have a cardboard home.

In the same vein, complaints about job pressures probably ring very hollow among those who are unable to find work. And government? There will always be something to complain about in government, and what puzzlement our Canadian identity crises and internal disputes provoke among the nations of the world. It doesn’t really get much better than Canada. We have it good. We have resources, we have space for our people, we have freedom. So far I can be thankful that we’re not using guns to settle our differences.

Giving thanks is a necessary part of a properly maintained life; its benefits are both corporate and personal. It nurtures a spirit of generosity, genuine rapport and an atmosphere that gives rise to cooperative efforts.

And God takes giving thanks seriously too. It is an important aspect of Old Testament practice and worship. Many of the Psalms are thanksgiving praises, clearly a part of Israel’s worship life. The habit also seems to be a key to the strong sense of community that was so attractive a feature of the early church.

Safeguards spiritual welfare

Giving thanks even serves to safeguard a person’s spiritual welfare. That may seem to be a strange claim, but consider the apostle Paul’s comment in a passage that discusses how people become alienated from the God. "They are without excuse," he writes, "for though they knew God, they did not honor or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened" (Romans 1:21).

Every person has burdens to bear and any lifestyle exacts its toll. Offering thanks to God acknowledges that what we have and enjoy is not only the result of our own doing, but a gift from God. An attitude of gratitude helps to sort the inconvenient from the truly tragic, and selfish desire from essential need.

Giving thanks acknowledges the grace that the Creator structured into the universe. Withholding it denies a precious gift.

Doug Koop
Editor