POINTING THEM TO JESUS: When Life is Not Okay - Part 2 - Thanksgiving!

Thankfulness. Thanksgiving. What’s the difference? One author notes; “Gratitude is not enough. But mere contentment – an appreciation for the things one has – isn’t enough. Thanksgiving differs from gratitude in this respect: It requires an object. There must be a giver to whom we give thanks, and whom we acknowledge as the source of our gifts.” (Jayme Metzgar)

I began last month with these words; At 3:00 AM the pain got to the point where I asked my wife to call an ambulance. The result was not a pleasant chat with others in the emergency room waiting to be attended as in my first visit a few days earlier. It was not observing people and looking for ways to point them to Jesus. Life was not okay, and it was getting worse.

Everything was, in a big picture way, out of my control. Arriving at the hospital, I was rushed in, an IV was started, and lots of morphine was administered along with other meds! The pain increased. My symptoms worsened, while my inability to function normally declined. As a result, more tests, more pain meds, and another MRI. Everything pointed to the seriousness of my condition.

The diagnosis revealed the need for emergency spinal surgery. The next day I was transferred to another hospital and late that afternoon, I was in surgery.

As I recovered in the hospital post-surgery, I had time to think and to reflect for the first time in a long while without being in excruciating pain. I was thankful. But what did that mean? Was my thankfulness only because of the absence of pain? Where was the object of my thankfulness, my gratitude?

In pointing others to Jesus, we often point to Him as the object of faith, the one from whom we receive healing, cleansing, and forgiveness. Our thanksgiving flows from the thankfulness for what He did for us and will do for others who come to Him. He is the focus, the object to whom we point others. Not ourselves, our churches, our social programs, and all the other good works we do, or our churches do. Jesus alone is the one to whom we give thanks.

Life was not okay, and that was okay because my thanksgiving and my thankfulness were not rooted in my life, my circumstances, my health or even in what I have. Too often we fall into the trap of giving thanks only for what we have, especially around the Thanksgiving holiday, and at times we fail to see and acknowledge the object who is the true source and provider of all we have. Emergency spinal surgery reminded me that this body of mine is wearing out. I’m not twenty years old anymore. I have a shelf-life. My thankfulness is not in this body, or even in this life, but the life to come, eternal life in the presence of the one who loved me enough to provide what I could never have provided for myself, which enabled me to be reconciled to my Heavenly Father.

If I seek to point others to Jesus, I need to be sure that I am first focused on Him. He is the source and the object of my thanksgiving, my thankfulness. My pointing others to Him must flow out of my acknowledging Him in all ways and in all things, even when life is not okay.

As we gather and celebrate “Thanksgiving” this year, let us take some time, apart from the turkey, ham, pumpkin pie and other delectables, to truly give thanks to the object of our thanksgiving – Jesus!

And about that ambulance ride. Even with the pain, my sense of humour kicked in as this was my first ambulance ride and I almost asked them to turn on the flashing lights and the siren. But then I figured my neighbours probably wouldn’t appreciate that at 3:00 am!

Learning to be thankful and develop thanksgiving because of Jesus!

Rev. Bill Allan
AGC President