Happy Thanksgiving
CHRISTINA FOX | EDITOR Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from all of us at enCourage! "...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:18).
Grief in this Holiday Season: Gospel Comfort for Every Loss
ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR Grief is as old as the Fall. Ever since Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, eating of the one tree denied them, loss has plagued the cosmos. This loss leads to grief. As the holidays arrive this year, grief will be fresh for many, raw for some. In the Middle East, Ukraine, Turkey, the Southeastern United States, and many other places throughout the world, disaster has struck, and the holiday season threatens to swallow its victims in a sea of grief. This year, your neighbor or friend, your co-worker or cousin, or perhaps you yourself, weep deeply and often as you mourn the loss of a loved one, a job, a relationship, a home, or a pet. How can we help? How can we grieve with hope if we are the ones who have suffered loss? By understanding grief and by looking to Christ, our grief may lead to the hope of restoration this holiday season. We can grieve all sorts of losses. As Christians we sometimes feel guilty for grieving something like a lost home or pet, a lost job, or even a lost relationship. Somehow, we got the idea that grief should be reserved for death. Somehow, we got the idea that when we grieve a loved one who died, we should be “happy” because the person is in heaven. That’s simply not the way grief works, not in life, and not in Scripture. As we look at Scripture, we see reasons to grieve all sorts of losses. Surely, we may grieve death, because our Lord himself grieved the death of his dear friend Lazarus, despite knowing he would soon raise him from the dead (see John 11:1-44). Because God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, and because he gave humans the responsibility of working the land and making it fruitful, it is natural to grieve the loss of land and work. Job, who lost everything — family, livestock, and land — to enemies and natural disasters (see Job 1:13-19), grieved deeply but was not rebuked for his grief. The Israelites wept for their homeland when they were in exile: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). Because the Lord cares for all creatures great and small, it is also appropriate to grieve the loss of a pet who brought us a taste of the Lord’s delight. All of creation has the potential to show us the goodness of the Lord; for this reason, we may grieve the loss of any good gift from God. Grief really is worse during the holiday season...
A Song of Thanksgiving
SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR Folk songs tell us stories in musical form. The Smithsonian offers a collection called “Classical Folk Songs for Kids.” The recordings are songs that I remember my parents singing, and now I sing them to my grandchildren (they are all too young to notice I cannot carry a tune!). Who does not remember the words to “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and “Puff the Magic Dragon?” Hymns tell us stories as well. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” based on Psalm 46, relates the attributes of God and records His mighty deeds. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” tells the story from 1 Samuel 7:12 where, after God gave the Philistines over to the Israelites, Samuel set up a stone called an Ebeneezer to commemorate the spot where “Till now the Lord has helped us.” The hymn hits the hearts of everyone who has ever felt God’s redeeming love. A Thanksgiving Song The first song recorded in the Bible is one of thanksgiving (Ex 15:1-21). Moses sang it when the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, with his host of warriors. After the final plague God brought on Pharaoh, the killing of the firstborn of Egypt including even Pharaoh’s own, Pharaoh reacted by finally relenting and letting the Israelites go. The Israelites’ firstborn were protected by the blood of the lambs painted on their doorposts. In anger, Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Israelites, intending to slaughter them before reaching the Red Sea. But God made a path through the Red Sea for His people, and when Pharaoh followed, the water surged around him and his chariots, destroying every last one. The Israelites witnessed the great power of the Lord and saw the Egyptians dead on the shore. With that, the Israelites “feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (Ex. 14:31). Moses’ response was to give God the glory and lead the people of Israel in a victory song. The Lord had demonstrated His faithfulness in a grand and glorious manner, saving the people of Israel. Selected verses from Moses’ song can provide a template for our own songs this Thanksgiving...
Give Thanks
LAURINDA WALLACE |GUEST The table is set perfectly—for the moment, serving dishes line the kitchen counters, and all is ready for the annual feast. Aromas of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and fresh bread drift throughout the house as everyone anticipates the call to the table. Your clock management for the Thanksgiving feast seems just as crucial as it is for the NFL coach with thirty seconds left in the game, and his team is down by one point. When everyone is finally seated, you relax while watching your family fill their plates. However, for all the preparation and cooking, Thanksgiving Day is quickly over. In the busyness of cooking, the chaos of excited children, and too much pie, we may barely remember the prayers offered, and the gratitude family and friends shared around the table. Is the reason for this festive meal already in the rearview mirror? While our calendar proclaims one day in the year as Thanksgiving Day, as God’s people, every day is an opportunity to give thanks—not to an ambiguous universe, but to the God who made heaven and earth. Saving up gratitude to the Lord for one day a year certainly isn’t what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Colossian church: And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful (Col. 3:15). Thankfulness is the Christian’s way of life. The children of Israel had short memories of God’s faithfulness and care just after the miraculous parting of the Red Sea and their rescue from the Egyptian army. Their gratitude soon switched to complaints that there was no food, and then they didn’t like the manna the Lord sent. This was just the beginning of their grumbling. I’m certainly guilty of the same, quickly forgetting how the Lord answers my daily requests for safety and provision of needs, which was recently brought to my attention. Every day, I pray specifically for the Lord’s protection over my grandsons, two teenagers and three between the ages of three and six. A lot can happen in any young man’s or little boy’s day! In the last few weeks, two incidents with my grandsons could have ended in injury or worse, but the graciousness of God kept them from harm. I don’t want to forget those wonderful mercies, but how can I make sure they aren’t?...
The Object of Our Thanksgiving
KERRY ANDERSON | GUEST Thank you note season is here. Though a waning tradition, I’m still a sucker for nice stationery, cute note cards, and handwritten thank you’s. And while we didn’t always nail the follow through (more than once I’ve found one of those unstamped, unmailed letters months later), we really did try to have our kids and ourselves write thank you notes for the gifts received on birthdays and holidays. The content was rarely substantial or original. Most started with the expected, “Dear Grandma, Thank you for the….” But, they were something. They acknowledged receipt of the gift and expressed gratitude for it. With pressing, my children would expand a bit more about the gift and its utility or their enthusiasm for it. It was progress in gratitude, at least in practice. But something was missing As I reflect now, generating enthusiasm for the gift falls short of the goal. Maybe rather than piling up attributes toward the thing received, perhaps the first two words of a thank you note are the ones that really matter. It’s the “Dear Grandma (or whoever),” the person opening and reading that note that is critical. We could all write lengthy, detailed thank you notes for gifts we receive, but if we don’t address and give them to someone, and the giver never actually sees or hears our words of thanks, our gratitude is lacking, empty, and misplaced. It becomes merely an advertisement for a product. The Object of our Thanks A sermon on this from years ago stuck with me (bringing in grammar concepts always perks my ears up) when my pastor explained that our thanks must have an object. There must be a receiver (God) of our expressions of thanks. We aren’t to be just thankful for something we’ve received. We’re to be thankful TO God for giving it to us. As believers, the object of our thanksgiving is not the gift; it is the giver...
Happy Thanksgiving
CHRISTINA FOX | EDITOR Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from all of us at enCourage! "...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:18).
Gratitude for Both the Good and the Hard
KRISTEN THOMPSON | GUEST One of my favorite childhood Thanksgiving traditions was the making of “thankful turkeys” with my family. We would list things we were grateful for on paper shaped feathers and then glue them to a cutout of a turkey. As a kid, it was easy to tape feather after feather onto my turkey: family, school, friends, candy corn, Thanksgiving Day rolls, etc. Recently, I’ve wondered why it feels harder as an adult to list my “feathers of gratitude” than it did as a kid. After all, I’ve experienced more years of God’s presence and faithfulness in my life, and I know Scripture better now than I did back then. However, more years of life have also brought more trials. Though I trust God’s sanctification of me is ongoing, gratitude is one area where it seems like the older I get, the more my natural bent is to grumble rather than give thanks—much like the Israelites grumbled after God delivered them from slavery (Ex. 15:24, 16:2, 17:3). I too am quick to forget God’s provision in my life. But Scripture is filled with calls to give thanks to God (read almost any of the Psalms or Paul’s letters and you’ll find the words “thanks” or “thanksgiving” scattered across them). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 even includes giving thanks as part of “God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” Why is this such an important command, and what should we be thankful for?...
Give Thanks to the Lord
BECKY KIERN|CONTRIBUTOR O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, planes formed of old, faithful and sure. He will swallow up death forever; and the LORD GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, It will be said on that day; “Behold, that is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:1, 8-9) There is nothing like the excitement of children around the holidays. Just the other day while on a video call with my niece, she excitedly showed me a count-down chain she and my nephew had just finished creating. She explained how each little paper circle represented a day of school they must complete before they get to start Christmas break. Christmastime is almost here, and she can’t wait. Likewise, the Christmas season stirs up a variety of emotions in adults as well. Gathering with family and friends can bring us much joy, laughter, and gratitude. But the season can also bring painful memories and tears as we grieve those who won’t celebrate the holidays with us this year. Hard emotions born from life lived in a fallen world often compete with the joy of the season—emotions such as grief, fear, doubt, weariness, loneliness, cynicism, or despair. They may wrestle for our affections and attempt to steal our hope and joy. But Advent knows better!...
Giving Thanks Every Day
BETHANY BELUE|GUEST Ten years ago, I sat across the table from a dear friend whose mother had recently passed away. As we shared a bowl of cheese dip, she talked to me about the pain of losing someone so close to her. Her grief was raw; her questions were real. But what I saw even more was how she clung to Jesus through her pain. That night she shared with me about keeping a journal of gratitude through the difficult season of watching her mom battle an illness and eventually go into the arms of Jesus. Each night, she wrote out specific things she was thankful for, things she was trusting God for, and a promise of God she was clinging to. Over time, she had pages and pages filled with her thoughts and desires. Although it did not change her circumstances, it gave her perspective in the midst of life's storms. What Happens When We Trace God’s Goodness As I walked the Manhattan streets back to my apartment that night, I was challenged by the discipline of my friend and her simple practice to remind herself of truth. At that time, I was in a season where life felt mundane and so many desires were unmet. It was so easy to lay my head on my pillow at the end of the day and think that the Lord was not answering my prayers and wonder where He was in my story. That night, I decided to start keeping my own journal...
From Grumbling to Gratitude
MARLYS ROOS|GUEST Have you ever played Doublets? It’s a simple word game, requiring only paper and pencil. Doublets was created by math professor, Charles L. Dodgson, (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland) in the late 1870s. The object of the game is to transform one word into an opposite term of the same length, one letter at a time, in as few steps as possible. It’s easy to change “dog” into “cat” or “heads” into “tails.” Advanced players transform longer words with more steps. Although “grumbling” and “gratitude” are both nine-letter words, I’m not sure grumbling can be transformed using Dodgson’s method. It takes divine intervention. Getting It Backwards Yet turning gratitude into grumbling is easy (though not in Doublets). It’s been part of our nature since the serpent in Genesis 3 twisted God’s words to make Eve question God’s goodness. Adam and Eve had everything: the perfect life with no illness, death, troubles, or shame, plus they had the physical presence of God to walk with them. What more could they have wanted? But there was that one thing they didn’t have, couldn’t have (v.3). So, Satan contorted the truth, infected them with the first case of FOMO, and turned their gratitude into grumbling...