
More often than not, I am guilty of not listening to the Holy Spirit. It sits on my shoulder and whispers in my ear, but I am frequently so distracted by the frenetic pace at which we live in this 21st century that I don’t hear what it is saying. The whispers get louder and louder … sometimes I hear something and swat at my ear as though a fly is buzzing near me. Sometimes I catch a word or two which causes me to stop and strain to make out the rest of the sentence, but then I get distracted or give up and never hear the entire message.
Too frequently, it requires the spiritual equivalent of someone dropping a house on me for the Holy Spirit to get my attention! On those occasions, hindsight reveals the clues I missed along the way, of course.
This is indeed one of those occasions.
I have been reading Jan Karon’s books about the fictional village of Mitford and her gentle-hearted protagonist, Timothy Cavanaugh, an Episcopalian priest. If you haven’t read this series, I highly recommend it because the stories about an eccentric bunch of folks in a quaint little town are a delightful slice of pure American pie. Mitford is much like Lake Wobegon — a little town that time forgot, populated by characters that you swear are based upon members of your own family or community. As you read, you find yourself caring deeply about all of them but especially the humble preacher and the woman he learns, late in life, to love.
In the seventh volume, In This Mountain, an “unexpected event propels [Father Tim] on a painful journey that shakes his faith, his marriage, and the whole town of Mitford.”
Preparing to lead worship, the priest finds that a sermon eludes him. Struggling at 2:00 a.m., he finally prays for assistance, telling God, “I’ve read Your word, I’ve sought Your counsel, I’ve whined, I’ve groveled, I’ve despaired, I’ve pled — and I’ve waited. And through it all, Lord, You’ve been so strangely silent.” Finally, he hears himself say, “I will not let You go until You bless me!” And then he realizes that God is speaking to his heart “with great tenderness,” commanding him to “[s]top seeking what you want to hear, Timothy, and listen to what I have to tell you.” At that point, his Bible falls open, he begins reading and finds the passage that, as Karon puts it, “God had held in reserve — expressly for him, expressly for now, and expressly for [Sunday] morning.”
That portion of the book enthralled and moved me when I read it just a few weeks ago. I did not realize then, of course, what the Holy Spirit had in mind for me in 2007, i.e., my departure from organized religion. Although I had long been unhappy and frustrated with my church situation, I had not yet disentangled myself, even though my former congregation had failed to provide me spiritual sustenance for a protracted period of time.
As I thought about my new-found churchlessness, I remembered this aspect of the story and knew that I both read and remembered it in accordance with the Holy Spirit’s timing. I was destined to read it before the events which culminated in my exit and remember it in the days following. As is so often the case in our lives, Jan Karon, a woman I have neither meant nor communicated with, could not have foreseen and will likely never appreciate the profound effect and influence her words have had on me.
I share with you here the message Father Tim delivered to the congregants of fictional Lord’s Chapel:
Last night, alone in my study, God gave me four words that Saint Paul wrote in his second letter to the church at Thessalonica. Four words than help us enter into obedience, trust, and closer communion with God Himself, made known through Jesus Christ.Here are the four words. I pray you will inscribe them on your heart.
In everything … give thanks.
In everything, give thanks. That’s all. That’s this morning’s message.
If you believe as I do that Scripture is the inspired Word of God, then we see this not as a random thought or an oddly clever idea of His servant, Paul, but as a loving command issued through the great apostle.
Generally, Christians understand that giving thanks is good and right.
Though we don’t do it often enough, it’s easy to have a grateful heart for food and shelter, love and hope, health and peace. But what about the hard stuff, the stuff that darkens your world and wounds you to the quick? Just what in this everything business?
It’s the hook. It’s the key. Everything is the word on which this whole powerful command stands and has its being.
Please don’t misunderstand; the word thanks is crucial. But a deeper spiritual truth, I believe, lies in giving thanks in … everything.
In loss of all kinds. In illness. In depression. In grief. In failure. And, of course, in health and peace, success and happiness. In everything.
There’ll be times when you wonder how you can possibly thank Him for something that turns your life upside down; certainly there will be such times for me. Let us, then at times like these, give thanks on faith alone … obedient, trusting, hoping, believing.
Perhaps you remember the young boy who was kidnapped and beaten and thrown into prison, yet rose up as Joseph the King, ruler of nations, able to say to his brothers, with a spirit of forgiveness, “You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, that many lives might be spared.” Better still, remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered agonies we can’t begin to imagine, fulfilling God’s will that you and I might have everlasting life.
Some of us have been in trying circumstances these last months Unsettling. Unremitting. Even, we sometimes think, unbearable. Dear God, we pray, stop this! Fix that! Bless us — and step on it!
I admit to you that although I often thank God for my blessings, even the smallest, I haven’t thanked Him for my afflictions.
I know the fifth chapter of First Thessalonians pretty well, yet it just hadn’t occurred to me to actually take Him up on this notion. I’ve been too busy begging Him to lead me out of the valley and onto the mountaintop. After all, I have work to do, I have things to accomplish … alas, I am the White Rabbit everlastingly running down the hole like the rest of the common horde.
I want to tell you that I started thanking Him last night — this morning at two o’clock, to be precise — for something that grieves me deeply. And I’m committed to continue thanking Him in this hard thing, no matter how desperate it might become, and I’m going to begin looking for the good in it. Whether God caused it or permitted it, we can rest assured — there is great good in it.
Why have I decided to take these four words as a personal commission? Here’s the entire eighteenth verse:
“In everything, give thanks … for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
His will concerning you. His will concerning me.
This thing which I’ve taken as a commission intrigues me. I want to see where it goes, where it leads. I pray you’ll be called to do the same. And please, tell me where it lead you. Let me hear what happens when you respond to what I believe is a powerful and challenging, though deceptively simple, command of God.
Let’s look once more at the four words God is saying to us … by looking at what our obedience to them will say to God.
Our obedience will say, “Father, I don’t know why You’re causing, or allowing, this hard thing to happen, but I’m going to give thanks in it because You ask me to. I’m going to trust You to have a purpose for it that I can’t know and may never know. Bottom line, You’re God — and that’s good enough for me.”
There are, of course, many more words in the first letter to the Thessalonians. Here are just a few:
“Pray without ceasing.”
“Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
“Quench not the Spirit.”
These words, too, contain holy counsel and absolute truth.
But the words which God chose for this day, this service, this pastor, and this people, were just four. Yes, do the other things I command you to do, He says, but mark these.
Mark these.
Like Father Tim, I have taken those four words, “in everything … give thanks,” as a personal commission. I give thanks for the events that transpired and caused me to embark upon this new, churchless adventure. I give thanks for the people from my former congregation who have reached out to me to say, “We will miss you.” I give thanks for those folks from that congregation who will shun me if they see me around town, looking away and pretending they don’t know who I am. I give thanks for the pastor who wanted so desperately to hurt me that his parting words to a long-time, faithful parishioner now form the tag line for this blog (above). I give thanks for the endless hours of service I gave to that congregation, knowing that God has said “well done” to me and I also give thanks that those endless hours are now being redirected into spiritually-empowering ventures and explorations.
I am making it my daily goal to give thanks in all circumstances, all events, all actions of all persons I encounter. Like Father Tim, I am intrigued by this commission and I want to see where it goes, where it leads.
I pray you’ll be called to do the same. Leave a comment, telling me where it leads you, and what happens when you respond to this powerful and challenging, though deceptively simple, command of God.
Have a wonderful, thankful Sunday!









{ 7 comments }
Well, those are challenging words. It always amazes me how something that would seem so simple (four words from Thessalonians) can be so deep. What you posted about giving thanks really resonates. I was elected the leader of a certain group and took that group to a competition where for the first time in four years we placed. Now I was camping and didn’t have a whole lot of time to pray, I did give God some thanks; but all in all I don’t give thanks near enough. I think if we as Christians would really give thanks more then we would do better in our walk with God.
On another note, do you not attend any Church services at all anymore?
God bless!
Hi! I came across your blog on “What the Blog” as I just recently joined. I am a recovering Lutheran, too, although I don’t think I was burned quite like it sounds like you were. I now go to a non-denominational church, and couldn’t be happier with my church family- and we are really a family. Most of the people’s blogs listed on mine are people who go to my church (most, but not all). Feel free to come by- some of my posts are spirituall in nature, some are just silly fun things like recipes and whatnot.
Thankfulness is certainly a must-have to be a joyous Christian- and really, who of us has nothing to be thankful for- our best friend is the King of the Universe, after all!
welcome on the BYB Sunday Bandwagon!
You are on the blogroll.
I hope you had a great Sunday and have a great week ahead!
in everything, give thanks
4 simple words yet very powerful indeed
i like how you did not end it there as nice as you could but went on to explain your thoughts & meaning behind it in your reflection – now that was beautiful
One thing I have learned from the whole BYBS is to be thankful — to be happy about some things that are going on with me. This is especially important to me because I spend a lot of time thinking about what’s wrong about me, my life and my world. In that way, BYBS is been, itself, something to be thankful for
The Holy Spirit is *not* an “it!” The Holy Spirit is a “He” as in the Spirit of God or Spirit of Jesus. Please correct this error.
That’s your opinion and you are entitled to it.
That is not my belief, so my writings are not in “error” and there is no need to “correct” anything.
Thanks for visiting.
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