Dear Friends,
This is the season of giving thanks and looking for light.
It can seem like a cliché to urge one another, ourselves, to “practice gratitude” or to “look on the bright side” of things. It can be unhelpful, even thoughtless, to suggest such things to another when they are in the midst of difficulty. Is there anything worse than having someone say, “Well, at least [fill in platitude here]” after you’ve experienced a loss?
And, yet, this is an amazingly helpful spiritual practice to take up for ourselves: for what are we grateful? Where is the light? Where have I experienced God, the Holy, recently?
For when we look for the good, the miraculous, the hopeful, well, we become better at finding it, noticing it. When we give thanks, we become thankful. When we look for the good, we soften, become kinder.
None of that means we pretend things are better than they are, nor do we ignore what is wrong, harmful, painful, or frightening. But it does mean that those are not the ONLY things we see. It does mean that in the midst of hard things, we don’t lose sight of the wonders and joys of this life.
And, so, I give thanks. I give thanks for the joyful, loving, truth-telling community at All Saints. I give thanks for a few days to pause, gather with loved ones, and to eat delicious food. I give thanks that our city has a pause from being besieged. I give thanks that the quiet season of Advent begins this Sunday. I give thanks for the sad, fascinating novel I just read (Flesh by David Szalay) and for being with friends at Thanksgiving and seeing our goddaughters growing up and launching into their own lives. I give thanks for the poetry of Wordsworth and remembering enough to recite fragments to the cat perched on the radiator at our friends’ house. I give thanks for modern medicine and for food pantries like ours.
I could keep going. I remember that St. Paul opens so many of his letters with thanks for the people to whom he writes, even when he’s writing with hard news or admonition: “I thank my God every time I remember you (Philippians 1:3)” and “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you”(Romans 1:8) (there are many more examples in his letters). I remember St. Paul’s instruction in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (5:16-18).
So, Beloved, today I give thanks for YOU.
See you in church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+