Sunday, November 19, 2017

Gratitude - for goodness' sake


Psalm 100 NRSV 


Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
    Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he that made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise.
    Give thanks to him, bless his name.
For the Lord is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

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Have you ever had one of those mornings?  You know, the ones where you wake up to the reality of cats fighting for their favorite spot in your bed - on top of you? And the outfit you were going to wear has a somehow acquired a stain right on the front that you didn’t notice before?  And the tech you depend upon for pretty much everything decided it didn’t like the new operating system that was installed  automatically while you slept?  So you had to go to work extra early so your computer could talk to your iPad and make it all better?  You hope.

Oh wait, that was me.  Today.  *sigh*

On days like that, it’s a bit harder to do that gratitude list I talk about all the time.   It’s a little harder to make a joyful noise, and celebrate God - celebrate anything at all really.  As we enter the holiday season, for many people, gratitude becomes more and more difficult.   We have to work hard to focus on anything positive.   Sometimes it’s hard to be grateful in the way of Psalm 100. Sometimes we have to turn to Psalm 30, the 2nd verse, which says  “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.”  Sometimes we have to be reminded of the words of American poet, Andrea Gibson, “You are not weak just because your heart feels heavy.“  

I think most of you know that my husband of 25 years died two weeks ago today.   The first week just happened to be one of those insanely busy weeks that happen to everyone, so I really didn’t get any time to think about it.  I did the things I needed to do with the insurance company and the funeral home in Florida, and then continued just doing what I do.  I was emotional and a bit over-reactive, and doing my best to hold everything together.  But Monday . . . Monday there was nothing on my calendar.   Monday I started crying, off and on, for no apparent reason.  Monday the reality hit, that the man I had spent 25 years with was gone.  We’d been apart for 3 years or so, and divorced for a year, so I was really surprised to find myself grieving so hard.  And because I am who I am, I wrote a blog post about my feelings.  And I posted it on Facebook.  And miracles started to happen.   People responded on Facebook - hundreds of them.  My phone started to ring.  Messages and texts started piling up my phone.  And all of the people who contacted me had stories to share, stories of me and Ton’Ee and how we had touched their lives together and separately.  And how, if it was so hard for them to see him go, it must be so much harder for me after all those years together.  Those calls and messages filled me with gratitude, and reminded me that, even in the worst of times, there are always things to be grateful for.  The people who called and wrote reminded me of all that was good about him, and about us, and I am so grateful for them.   

I’ve found myself being grateful for very stange things over the years that I’ve been practicing gratitude.  Things like being grateful for the flu, because it made me slow down and take care of myself.   But it’s hard, sometimes, to see past the hard stuff, the pain, the grief, and the day to day stuff we all have to deal with.  
It’s at times like this that people who do gratitude lists end up with something like this one I found on Facebook (picture attributed to a radio station KKLA 99.5 FM).  

Early wake-ups = children to love
House to clean = safe place to live
Laundry = clothes to wear
Dishes to wash = food to eat
Crumbs under the table = family meals
Grocery shopping = $ to provide for us
Toilets to clean = indoor plumbing
Lots of noise = people in my life
Endless questions about homework = kids brains growing
Sore and tired in bed = I’m still alive!

There is so much to be grateful for - so many reasons to praise our God as the psalmist did.  So many reasons, really, to make a joyful noise, to come into God’s presence singing.  This morning, when Virgie came in to my office to tell me all her good news, we shared tears of joy over the wonders and miracles of life.  There is nothing quite so wonderful as sharing our gratitude with each other.  So, although I know I already did this once this month, I’m going to ask you to share the things you are grateful for today out loud.    

I’ll start - I’ve been here as your pastor two years!  And every single day, I feel more and more strongly that I have come home, to the place I am meant to be.    I am so grateful that we found each other and that you called me to come be with you here.   (Time for people to share gratitude.)

I imagine we could go on for half the day sharing our gratitude, and I know that we will share some stories with each other during our Pot Luck. Many of us will be doing that again on Thursday as part of a Thanksgiving family tradition - in between the turkey and football or whatever your own family’s traditions are.    

As we give thanks to our God for everything we have received, may we remember those who have no where to go, no feast to eat, no family to care for them.   As we lift our voices in thanks and praise to the Lord our God, who placed us here to care for the earth and for each other, let us recall that Jesus taught us to share what we have with those who are in need; to pour out our love on those who are unloved; to reach out to the sick, the tired, the depressed with healing hands; to comfort the prisoner and the lonely.   On this Thanksgiving Sunday, let us go forth from this place to show our gratitude in very tangible ways, to those outside these doors who need our touch, our help, our love.  

The Good News, my brothers and sisters, is that we are God’s people, God’s own beloved children, upon whom God’s blessings flow like water.  Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God, whose faithfulness is eternal, and whose grace-filled forgiveness and steadfast love endures forever.   


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