The Thanksgiving Reflection I Didn’t Want to Share

I delivered this message last Wednesday at my church’s Thanksgiving Eve service. A few people asked me to post it on my blog.

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Well, much to my surprise, Mike Geiler’s invitation to share a Thanksgiving reflection—what God is teaching me—really gave me pause, and stirred up my heart… and not in a good way at first.

I was initially reluctant and wanted to say no. It’s not because I don’t have a mile-long list of blessings. Because I do. The honest truth is that, deep down, a lie was being whispered in my heart, and it said my perspective and experiences weren’t unique enough or interesting enough to share. When I started to mentally list what I was thankful for, the voice said, “Obvious. Cliché. They’ve heard it before…”

There aren’t a lot of twists and turns in my testimony to keep an audience hooked. There hasn’t been a big rise or a big fall. No great personal dramas or sudden revelations.

My journey more closely aligns with a phrase used by author and Pastor Eugene Peterson: “a long obedience in the same direction.” Can you relate? I’ve mourned and I’ve had disappointments, but by and large, my path has been straight… and relatively narrow. Compared to 99.9% of the world, I am living an easy, comfortable life.

So the Liar twisted all of this in me, whispering that what I had to bring was boring, unremarkable. And then, very clearly, I heard another voice—this one, the Holy Spirit speaking TRUTH—who called me out quietly, but firmly: “Sarah, you know I’ve been faithful to you. Your life overflows with evidence of my goodness. How can you turn down a chance to praise me?” And then I thought, maybe the “unremarkable” thing I’m thankful for is actually relatable, and perhaps there is a lot of common ground in the “cliché.”

So here I am. And with that very honest preamble, I’ll start with Family. I am thankful for family. I can guarantee most of us will gather round a table with family tomorrow, and when it’s our turn to say what we’re thankful for, we’ll say something to the effect of “each other.”

But Family is no Thanksgiving cliché; it’s a cornerstone of God’s design for us. Community. The love of one another. The breaking of bread and the sharing of life. As I look around the table tomorrow, I will be thankful for the exact family that God planted me in. I could have been born anywhere, at any time in history, to any two people. But I got Steve and Patti Brownlee. Praise God! He knew what he was doing.

I’m in my 30s, and in this season, I’ve been more and more convicted about the time being relatively short with my family, and the desire to honor those closest to me. Hold my tongue, tell my pride to sit down and love them well as they’ve loved me. When you look around the table tomorrow—when you look at your church family in these pews tonight, don’t be lulled into the familiarity of those faces. Take a fresh look at your dearest ones, and consider why God put you with these crazy people versus the crazy people down the street. Give Him thanks for your very own imperfect cloud of witnesses. Ask Him to help you maximize your time and your ministry to these special people. I think Hebrews 10:24 & 25 speaks to this:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

I am so thankful for my best friend and husband, Tim. And I love Luke, my son, more than I knew I had the capacity for. I am so grateful for how God has orchestrated our little trio. That leads me to the second big thanksgiving praise I have, and that is for God’s faithfulness.

Even five years ago, I knew this wife and mother thing was something I wanted, but I couldn’t have told you what it would look like, big picture or day-to-day. But He has provided. The right jobs have been there when we needed them. The Lord used modern medicine and surgery to save my life—and possibly save my son’s life—two years ago. Even deaths in our families have, looking back, been providentially timed. To quote a lyric from one of my favorite songwriters, Sara Groves: “I can’t remember a trial or a pain, He did not recycle to bring me gain…”

We have a faithful Father who knows the desires of our hearts and does them one better. In this time of giving thanks, I’d encourage you to take time to REMEMBER how and where God has been faithful. When He didn’t have to be. Do we understand we are not entitled to any of this? Not a breath. And yet, because the Lord Jesus has proven Himself faithful—even to the point of death for our sake—we can trust Him wholeheartedly and take courage. Our God has a track record of faithfulness.

So, remember and consider His role as Author of your life. What story did He write that you never would have seen coming? Good or bad.  Will you give Him thanks, no matter what? And keep handing over the pen, trusting His faithfulness?

And then there’s the thanksgiving blessing from which all others flow… Grace. We’ll say “grace” at the Thanksgiving table. We like to sing about grace. We hear the word so much that it’s easy to gloss over it as a nice warm-fuzzy concept. I believe in God’s grace and I cling to it, but that doesn’t mean I understand it. I never fully will. I will go to my grave unable to fully comprehend God’s gracious character that compels Him to offer me—a self-absorbed, wandering and whining sinner—such undeserved kindness and favor.

But here’s what He’s taught me that’s given me a better grasp of grace, that I treasure this Thanksgiving: I’ve learned that my appreciation of God’s grace is in direct correlation to my awareness of my own sin. And in this season, I see my sin. I see it clearer than I did at 13 or 22 or even 30. In all the different realms of my day—with difficult coworkers or with a defiant 2-year-old, in my own stressed-out, insecure thoughts—I see the lack of grace in my own character. My gaping, ugly wound of need that never closes.

And so, the longer I walk with Christ, the more stunned I am by His acceptance of me. I know how desperate I am, and I am thankful for that, because only in that desperation will I go to Jesus and depend on Him and truly value the costly gift of grace. And when we start to understand grace, we start to experience joy.

Christian thinker John Stott says, “Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.” Another favorite writer, Brennan Manning, defines grace as “indiscriminate compassion.” And Sara Groves sings, “This is grace… an invitation to be beautiful.”

What could be better or more fundamental? Every other thanksgiving praise I could think of—big or small—is surpassed by the soaring theme of grace through Christ. Grace: the giving of everything to those who deserve nothing. The turkey, the table, your feet hitting the floor this morning, your brain’s synapses firing, your story unfolding, your life redeemed. It’s ALL GRACE. He set it all in motion, and He makes it beautiful.

I’ll close with Psalm 16:4-8:

“I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” You alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”