This morning’s service at Cherry Tree Court looked at the theme of thankfulness (see 1 Thess 5:18 and Eph 5:20). The book Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter tackles this topic, showing how Pollyanna learnt to play the ‘glad game‘ from her father, looking at reasons for thankfulness in all circumstances. Often, we find it easy to be thankful when circumstances are favourable and we feel happy, but because God is working all things together for good and is in complete control of our lives, we can give thanks even when circumstances are not so good.
The Israelites were faced with challenging circumstances at times, such as when their land was invaded by the Babylonians and they were taken away into exile. They kept hoping they could soon go home. They didn’t want to be in Babylon. They were homesick. They were so upset that they said ‘By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion’ (Ps 137:1) and they cried ‘How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.’ (Ps 137:4-5) For them, their whole lives were defined by this one event: how could they be God’s people when they were no longer living in God’s land? How could they be glad when there was nothing to be glad about?
Jeremiah’s message of hope (Jer 29:4-14) didn’t initially seem particularly encouraging, for, contrary to what they wanted, he urged them to settled down in Babylon, build houses and gardens, get married and carry on as normal, telling them that this exile would last seventy years. These were hard facts to face, but God deals with reality and does not sugar coat truth. ‘The aim of the person of faith is not to be as comfortable as possible but to live as deeply and thoroughly as possible – to deal with the reality of life, discover truth, create beauty, act out love.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Run With The Horses’ P 150) Reality might well be facing we are ill and aren’t going to get better; it might mean facing that the person we love no longer loves us or has died and therefore isn’t there to love us anymore; it might mean facing we don’t have as much money as we used to have or we can’t live where we used to live. When God tells us to give thanks in all circumstances and for everything, He’s not saying the circumstances are always rosy or the situations are always good.
What God does want us to do is to live for today with grateful hearts. Jeremiah urged the people to live for today, accepting that God was there in the everyday and the mundane, in the ordinary, accepting that even though things hadn’t worked out the way they wanted them to work out, that wasn’t the end of the story. Our circumstances are not the end of the story; they’re only part of the story. Every day, we are faced with a choice as to how we will live. ‘Will I focus my attention on what is wrong with the world and feel sorry for myself? Or will I focus my energies on how I can live at my best in this place I find myself?’ (ibid. P 150)
Jeremiah reminded the people that that God had good plans for them: ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (Jer 29:11) He told them that if they would seek God with all their hearts, they would find Him. (Jer 29:12-14) We can give thanks in all circumstances and rejoice like Pollyanna did, not just because we have a sunny disposition or are optimists by nature, but because we have a good God who never leaves us or forsakes us and who is actively working all things together for good in our lives. Let’s choose to live for today with thankfulness and grateful hearts because we are never alone, even in exile, and we’re never without hope, for we have a God of hope who fills us with joy and peace as we trust in Him so that we can overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)