After a conversation today with Jeff McBee, a co-worker and brother in Christ, I am reviewing the message that God has been stirring in my heart about Christ-like thanksgiving. Jeff pointed out that there is a different between giving thanks through a circumstance and actually being thankful for something that is a tragedy. For example, he said that we should not thank God that a young boy is accidentally gunned down in a drive-by shooting connected with a drug war. God weeps over those tragedies. He does not cause them. We should thank God despite the tragedy and look for Him to do something miraculous in the lives of those impacted by the event.
No matter what Ephesians 5:20 says, Jeff said that taking the Scripture out of context can be dangerous. He said that it must be judged in light of the entire weight of Scripture and the revealed character of God. Jeff maintained that God does not cause sin or delight in misery of His creation. Jeff asked, "How can we thank God for something that He is not responsible for causing?"
Jeff also disagreed with my use of Romans 8:28-29. He believes that the Scripture is talking about spiritual realities not physical ones. He didn't say the message was wrong he just thought I was taking the passage out of context. I, of course, made the point that it is hard to divorce the physical from the spiritual world. Our physical problems and issues bring out the underlining spiritual struggle taking place in the world around us.
While I respect what Jeff had to say and agree with most of his points, I think that it may be just a matter of semantics. The heart behind my message is that we are to be thankful even when we don't feel like it. God can turn any situation around and use it to refine His people and restore creation to its intended design. We are to thank God precisely because He is so good at turning chicken poop into chicken salad. I was not really meaning that we should be thankful for a loss, tragedy or trial in and of itself. No, we thank God because He is still who He is despite our circumstance. We thank God because He is worthy. We thank God because the other option is to be disappointed. This leads to disillusionment and discouragement. This path leads to depression and eventually spiritual death.
And I was certainly not discrediting the importance of grieving a loss or tragedy. Jesus shed tears for those He loved when He saw their afflictions. Grieving is part of the natural process of recovery. But we must reach a place where we can thank God through our circumstances if we want to be free from the weight of those problems.
There are two ditches of faith on this issue. One says that we should just accept whatever happens as an act of God and give Him thanks for whatever life brings. This faith ditch focuses on having the faith to trust God despite hardships. The other faith ditch is that God only wants us to have the easy life with no challenges. If you face hardships in this life, then you are not living in faith enough to see God eliminate your troubles. Both of these mindsets have some degree of truth and error connected with them. The truth lies somewhere in between the extremes.
I still stand by the core of my message which is that more people would experience freedom in life if they continued to thank God through their troubles instead of just waiting for God to change them and then be thankful.
