Gratitude: A Doxology in the Darkness

Once a month I write a letter to the wonderful Prayer for Prodigals community I am part of.  Often those letters, though specific to those who love a prodigal, apply to any or all of us in the challenging circumstances of life. This post speaks of prodigals, but it for all of us, especially on this Thanksgiving Day.

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Are you weary of 2020?  

I think most of us are. Because I am in the “at risk” age group, and because a lifetime of asthma has weakened my lungs, my husband really wants us to stay mostly isolated. I do want to stay well, and our house is large enough for both of us to be on zoom calls without disturbing the other. And there are no children doing school. 

But there are children I would love to see and hug—10 grands. And friends, neighbors and coworkers I would I would like to talk to face-to-face. So sometimes I get a little whiny.

Recently, when I was in a whiny state, I read a chapter on gratitude in Brennan Manning’s Ruthless Trust and was sharply reminded of a lifestyle I have mostly chosen in recent years—gratefulness—but seemed to have forgotten in my weariness (and whininess). Perhaps your prodigal has worn you out as well!

Whatever place our journey has led us to now, even in our difficult journeys with prodigals, we can benefit from some reminders of why we can keep on trusting God: He is God. He is good. He loves us. Jesus, who died for us, is our bread and water and shepherd and much more. The Spirit of God lives in us.

So perhaps those reminders will spark the solid evidence that we are genuinely growing in that trust. Manning suggests this:

The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness. Gratitude arises from the lived perception, evaluation, and acceptance of all of life as grace—as an undeserved and unearned gift from the Father’s hand…. 

Consider these characteristics of gratitude:

All means all 

It is easy to make a list of all the “blessings”—the good things—in our lives, for which we are grateful. It would be a good practice to do that daily.

But the kind of lived-out gratitude that is proof of our trust in God will also include saying, “Thank You, Lord” in everything—including those things we prefer were not happening in our lives.

Even for the pain caused by loving a prodigal.

Gratitude pays attention

The busyness of life, the bombardment of messages from our culture and the challenges of the choices of one we love all distract us from an awareness of our God who is active in every detail of our lives. As it says repeatedly in Way Maker:

Even when I don't see it, You're working
Even when I don't feel it, You're working
You never stop, You never stop working
You never stop (yeah oh), You never stop working.

A heart of gratefulness stays aware of God in the beautiful events and joys, and in the difficult circumstances and experiences. This kind of gratitude pays attention to what He is doing, what He is saying, how He is working.

Gratitude is catching

You know those people you don’t want to run into: the complaining, whiny ones who pass on to you their negative, ungrateful attitudes.

But you also know the ones who, in the midst of difficulties and disappointments, still exude joy and gratitude. You love to be with them, and perhaps you even “catch” some of that grateful spirit.

We tend to think that only joyful circumstances will make us thankful. In reality, joy—in any circumstance, good or bad—comes from an already grateful heart.

There is a God

Manning says that gratitude focuses on God: The theocentric character of gratitude is anchored in trust that there is Someone to thank.

The word theocentric means “having God as the central focus.”  We have just affirmed all that God is. Hopefully, we have begun to see that God is totally trustworthy. He provides for us, meets our needs, stays with us, gives us strength and perseverance and wisdom—and hope.

As our trust expands, so will our gratitude. We will increasingly choose to…give thanks in all circumstances. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) 

I love this thought from Brennan Manning: To be grateful for an unanswered prayer, to give thanks in a state of interior desolation, to trust in the love of God in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances, obscenities and commonplaces of life is to whisper a doxology in darkness.

Can you whisper a doxology in the darkness?

What about you? What might your “doxology in the darkness” look like today?

C2020 Judy Douglass