Honest Thanksgiving

Read: Psalm 71

Though you have made me see troubles,
    many and bitter,
    you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
    you will again bring me up.
You will increase my honor
    and comfort me once more.
I will praise you with the harp
    for your faithfulness, my God... (Psalm 71:20-22)

I don’t know about you, but there have certainly been seasons of my life when thanking God for anything felt like an impossibility, at best, or an outright lie, at worst. For me, 2008 was one of those years. (Yes, I said “years!”) In January of that year, I was the victim of a violent home invasion which almost cost me my life. And by late August, I was in hospital fighting for my life again–this time, because of aspiration pneumonia.

On the infrequent occasions when I was “with it” enough to pray at all during my first week in the hospital, my prayers were more like that of an exhausted and depressed Elijah in 1 Kings 19:4 than anything resembling thanksgiving. It was toward the end of this week that one of my “email carrier pigeons” (i.e., friends who had volunteered to check my email, and print off emails that they thought I’d like to hear) brought me an email from a close friend of mine who lives in another city. In this email, my friend first assured me that I was being prayed for–A LOT. And then, he referred me to today’s Scripture reading from Psalm 71, suggesting that this might be a prayer that I could pray for myself.

During the months of slow and arduous recovery that followed, I did periodically endeavour to pray Psalm 71 for myself. But because I was stuck in a lamenting frame of mind, I would invariably omit the first word, “though,” and stop at the end of the first sentence. My “prayer” thus amounted to, “You have made me see troubles, many and bitter. The End.” (I’m pretty sure this wasn't what my friend had in mind when he pointed me to this Psalm!) One day though, I sensed God saying to me “But this is NOT “The End”–of the psalm, or of you! You need to KEEP GOING!” So this time, I made myself pray on through the rest of the Psalm. As I did, I was struck with the realization that God doesn't expect, or even want, thanksgiving that glosses over our trials and discouragement. Rather, what God wants is “honest thanksgiving” – thanksgiving in which we acknowledge the existence and severity of our struggles, and yet affirm our trust in a Wise and Loving Heavenly Father who will sustain us in and through all of our struggles.

Loving and Wise Heavenly Father, Thank you that you are a God who is big enough to handle honest thanksgiving. Please help me to learn and practice this art more and more, as I encounter seasons of trouble and discouragement. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.