I once was pastor of a church on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Most of the church members who were gainfully employed were either loggers or fishermen. Both made a good living, and the salmon and herring fishermen did especially well during those years. They worked hard at dangerous jobs, and they were well compensated.

Along came Thanksgiving day, which in Canada is in October. An especially abundant salmon fishing season had drawn to a close. The fishermen were preparing their nets for winter storage, and doing seasonal maintenance on their boats. Soon some would fly off to vacations on Maui; others would head south to California.      

The weekend of Thanksgiving, we had a special church service to give thanks to God for the abundance of His blessings. Brightly colored banners hung about the church. Children belted out songs of praise; youth read scriptures of rejoicing; many gave testimonies of God’s goodness. Then Dorothy rose to speak. She was an unassuming woman who was always cheerful. Dorothy was not old, probably in her 50s, but in this church filled with hardy young families, she was a revered “elder statesman.” She had known her share of both abundance and hard times.

I don’t remember her exact words, but I remember Dorothy’s thought. It came from the obscure little Old Testament book of Habakkuk:

“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my savior”
(Habakkuk 3:17-18*). 

It was not a wet blanket on our Thanksgiving celebration, just a reality check. Yes, we have it good now, Dorothy observed, but things probably won’t always be so good. Let’s not forget to praise Him then too.

Dorothy was right. Things aren’t always so good, but we can always be thankful.  

Recently I helped a family move. Life for this family is difficult. The husband has undergone intense radiation and chemotherapy treatment following cancer surgery. The procedures have laid him low; he is unable to work; his prognosis is uncertain. Adding to their difficulty, the wife lost her job because of a corporate buyout. In the midst of these trials, they were forced by circumstances to pack up and move to a different home.          

“Isn’t God good,” the wife said to me as I was carrying a box across the lawn. “It’s such a beautiful day; it could have been raining.”

Well, there was my reality check for the week.

Early in his life as a traveling evangelist, the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). It sounds good. Did Paul maintain his upbeat spirit? 

Ten years later, after suffering beatings, shipwrecks, and numberless other trials, Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).

And what were Paul’s circumstances at the time? We discover this further along in the same letter: “Devote yourselves to prayer,” Paul urges the Colossians, “being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains” (Colossians 4:2-3). 

As he was writing to the Colossians about thankfulness, Paul was chained to the stone wall of a Roman prison. On a visit to Rome a few years ago, I walked down the worn stone steps into the dusky subterranean cell known as the Mammertine Prison. Tradition has it that Paul was imprisoned there. It is not a place designed to make one thankful.

But three years later, still in prison, Paul wrote the last of his letters—this one a personal note to his young friend Timothy. It was not long before his death.  

“Nevertheless,” Paul wrote to Timothy, “God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his’” (2 Timothy 2:19).

Examples ancient and modern make the same point: A spirit of thankfulness does not depend on circumstances. I can always be thankful. 

B.W.

*All scripture from the New International Version.