Groaning Yet Grateful: Thanksgiving 2020
Two days ago, I sat in an empty hospital room with needles sticking in both arms. My blood circulated out of my right arm into a machine called a centrifuge that filters out white blood cells. Thankfully, the rest of my borrowed blood and red blood cells returned through my left arm. My dad will receive these white blood cells next week in a transfusion to battle against a form of blood cancer.
Between my father’s blood cancer treatment and chemotherapy, my wife’s high-risk pregnancy, and the dangers and restrictions associated with COVID-19, our family’s regularly scheduled program for Thanksgiving has been cancelled. Instead of gathering with family or friends, we’ll be home alone.
Part of why this hits so hard for me is Thanksgiving is our family’s favorite holiday. We love the crowded kitchen on the morning of Thanksgiving. Conversation flows freely as an abundance of food takes over the countertops and delicious smells fill the air. We tell old stories and catch up on new ones from this year. As the turkey rests, I slip in and out of the kitchen between watching football and playing yard games, sneaking little bites of turkey without getting caught red-handed.
The crowning experience of the day is the feast. Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, cranberry (in some form), and multiple pies. Though it’s debated by some, the meal should also include ham and a version of mac-n-cheese. (Including ham doesn’t blur the lines between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Turkey is the featured meat, but ham is a bonus option.) As we recover and our inflated stomachs return to normal, there’s the quiet and calm of the early evening. And then, finally, later that night there’s Thanksgiving round two as leftovers are hit the counter again.
Missing the joy of celebrating with those we love feels like a painful loss. In a year that has at times felt like a series of gut-punches, this is yet another one. Many people this year will still have the chance to gather with family and friends, though it might not look the same or some loved ones might not be present. Thanksgiving will likely feel different for many of us this year.
So how do you give thanks when your heart groans? How do you live in the tension as Christians who practice both thanksgiving and lament? Or, why might we especially need to lean into gratitude this Thanksgiving, with all the challenges, frustrations, and trials 2020 has brought?
HOLDING TOGETHER PAIN AND PRAISE
In the Psalms, David models living with one foot in a world of brokenness and another foot in a world of blessing. He doesn’t see pain and praise as mutually exclusive. He moves from lamenting “How long, O Lord” in one breath (Ps. 35:17) to declaring “I will thank you” in the next (35:18).
We can give thanks in trials, not because we sweep the pain or problems under a rug and refuse to talk about them but because—even in hardship—our hope remains. As Charles Spurgeon preached in his sermon More and More, “For humanity, amid all its sorrows and sins, hope sings on . . . Because our hope abides, our praise continues.”
That’s how I’m approaching Thankgsiving this year: “hope sings on.” This rock-solid reality for believers is why we remain grateful to God even while our weak, weary, and wounded hearts groan. We say, “This is hard, but God is still God. He remains faithful, sovereign, kind, and good.” We cry out to God, and we rest in the fact that he hears, remembers, sees, and knows (Ex. 2:24-25). If God is for us, we have more reasons to give thanks than we do to grumble.
Psalm 103: Don’t Forget God’s Blessings and Benefits
Thanksgiving retunes our minds and hearts with a God-centered perspective. It doesn’t ignore our challenges, but it helps us not get stuck on them. It lifts our gaze onto who God is, what we have in him, and the gracious and mighty things he’s done for us. It reminds us God is faithful and has been faithful. I’ve found Psalm 103 to be immensely helpful in being thankful for Christ’s benefits and blessings.
A retail employee might walk through each aisle, noting what’s on the shelf. In Psalm 103, King David begins a series of psalms taking stock of God’s love and faithfulness by strolling through Israel’s history. You and I need spiritual reminders, and Thanksgiving provides a day to pause, reflect, remember, and give thanks. For hearts that grow cold because they’re not warming themselves over the fires of gratitude, Psalm 103 supplies the oxygen to stoke the flames.
Whether it’s a tangible provision in our life, a spiritual blessing in Christ, God’s track-record of patience and steadfast love toward us, or the good gifts visible in creation, he has been good to us in countless ways. David urges us to bless the Lord through thanksgiving (103:1) by not forgetting “all his benefits” (103:2).
While I encourage you to read through the psalm in its entirety, reflecting on and praying back to God these verses with thanksgiving, here are three ways to give thanks based out of Psalm 103.
Praise God for His Holiness
A person’s name captures who they are. God’s “holy name” tells us holiness defines him to his core. He is perfect and pure. This is the reason for the psalmist to “bless his holy name!” (103:1). There isn’t the slightest impurity in him. There’s nothing in God but goodness, righteousness, justice, and the full perfection of all his attributes. As God, he is separate from us; above and beyond us. He is the high and exalted one, and with the angels we fall on our face and cry “Holy, holy, holy” (Is. 6:3; Rev. 4:8). We don’t just give thanks to God for what He does; we give him thanks for who he is. He is totally other. He is holy. And deserving of our praise.
Praise God for His Grace and Forgiveness
If you’re not a believer in Christ, you can be forgiven. If you are a believer in Christ, you have beenforgiven, and not just for some things but for all things. He is full of grace. Jesus took your sin on himself at the cross (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). There is no stain from sin his perfect blood can’t wash away.
A few verses later, David writes, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:10-12). Because you’re forgiven through Christ’s righteousness, God is for you. There is no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). Jesus removed our guilt and shame when he carried it on his two shoulders. We can praise his name for declaring us not guilty but righteous instead.
Even death loses its ultimate sting. Jesus removes our chains and unlocks our prison door so we can live in the freedom he purchased. Now and forever. Forgiveness of sin rises to the top of the list of benefits not to forget. We can give thanks that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ.
Praise God for His Healing and Restoration
Christ is also the one who “heals all your diseases” (103:3). This can include physical healing (Matt. 8:14-17), something many Christians experience. But this phrase often refers to Christ restoring or healing something in our life. We are like Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head, always falling apart and broken in one way or another. Christ puts us back together, little by little.
This phrase likely connects to the first half of 103:3 where it mentions our iniquities or sins. Though our sin corrupts, wounds, and hurts us, Christ heals us and makes us whole. He restores what sin ruins. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps. 147:3).
One of the ways Christ heals spiritually is as a shepherd would physically. The Bible describes Christ as a good shepherd (John 10:7-18). It pictures him carrying his sheep, in both strength and tenderness, safely to a place where he can nurture them back to health. The Old Testament describes God as a shepherd, too. “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak” (Ez. 34:15-16; cf. Jer. 3:22; Hos. 14:4). Broken and hurting sheep can find refuge in their good shepherd. This is praiseworthy! Burdens remain, but God’s blessings abound. We can praise the name of Jesus Christ for being our healer.
HOPE SINGS THANKFULLY
Within just the first three verses of Psalm 103, we can see reasons to praise God. We can give thanks to God for who he is and what he has done—especially on the basis of his holiness, his grace, and his restoration.
Whether your Thanksgiving Day in 2020 looks a lot like holidays from the past or it looks entirely different, learn from David by leaning into giving thanks. As you pass the gravy this Thanksgiving, spread some gratitude. Recall God’s faithfulness in the past and remember the blessings you have today. And as we give thanks—in sorrow or joy—our hope sings on and our trust grows deep.
Dustin Crowe (@IndyCrowe) serves as the pastor of discipleship at Pennington Park Church in Fishers, Indiana. He received a B.A. in Historical Theology (Moody Bible Institute) and an M.A. in Theological Studies (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School).
Learn more about thanksgiving from Dustin Crowe’s new book, The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks: Reclaiming the Gifts of a Lost Spiritual Discipline.