“But thanks be to God”: A Fifteenth Reflection
Today is the day which this nation historically designated for public thanksgiving to the Creator for the gifts lavished upon us by his gracious divine Providence. As such, even in these days in which most government officials would rather not acknowledge his existence or justified involvement in the affairs of men and nations, it is fitting for me to again publicly express my gratitude for specific blessings, as I have done each year since my first Thanksgiving reflection—and particularly those newly experienced, or newly remembered, since last year.
Perhaps I should begin with this: I am grateful for God’s continued training in contentment. As my hopes and plans came to nothing at various times through the year, I found myself able to pray “God’s will be done” in trust—if not yet entirely wholehearted trust—that his ways are best. As Job said (in my paraphrase), in a verse that a recent Sunday School discussion brought to mind, “Shall we accept good from the Lord and not evil?”
Second, I am grateful for the patterns that he has allowed to develop in my life that have kept me at least somewhat anchored in the Word even as time has slipped away—beyond the weekly gathering with his people, and the sermons from a few other churches that I download each week and listen to later, I am grateful for the half-hour time of Scripture reading and study and prayer each weekday morning with members of the church I attended in Virginia via Zoom.
Third, I am grateful for the accomplishments he has allowed me to see in my professional work; two systems that the team I am a part of maintains saw major upgrades this year that we’ve been working on for about as long as I’ve been with the team. My contribution to each was small, but recognized by both my teammates and our leaders, which was gratifying. I am also thankful that my team’s leaders exemplify servant leadership, going to great lengths to ensure we have the knowledge and feedback we need to work successfully and efficiently, and publicly praising key team members by name when we had positive news to report, but taking responsibility to higher-level management when we failed to meet deadlines demanded of us.
Fourth, I am grateful for safety and blessing in two trips God graciously provided the means for and brought me through early this year, the first to see two friends I hadn’t seen in about a decade or more and to meet another friend in person for the first time, and the second for a work-bureaucracy requirement. That first trip brought me some of the brightest happiness I can remember in many years, with the Sunday morning meeting with God and his people as the particular highlight, and even the second trip was far less stressful and unpleasant than I had expected.
Fifth, I am grateful for the word I periodically hear of a dear friend’s continued and increasing authorial success, after ending years of “radio silence” about a year and a half ago. After many months’ experience has modified my expectations I can’t say anymore as I did last year that everything has been “far from the way(s) I would have ever expected events to turn out,” but this ongoing saga is still one where God is plainly at work, and is answering my prayers.
Sixth, I am grateful for the words the Lord has given, or allowed, me to write this year. This includes both new poetry, old unfinished or poor-quality poems I polished up to presentability, and prose. On the poetry front, By this time last year I had resumed semi-regular posting of poetry at a cadence of about one previously-unpublished poem every two weeks, but I was only about three months into this new pattern, and I was still feeling concerned that I would run out of presentable material soon. Over the past year, by God’s help I have maintained that pace and increased how long in advance I am getting these posts scheduled. (I now have poems scheduled to run through next July, with two more ready to add as soon as I can find images to pair with them and two others almost finished.)
In addition to poetry and book reviews (six of those this year), I’ve finally resumed and, by God’s help, continued to make fairly consistent progress on the draft of The Invasion that was supposed to be my major project for 2019 before God upended my plans that year. The draft currently stands at about 32,000 words, and is in Chapter 26, out of perhaps (if the ratio of chapters to scenes in my outline holds true) 66 chapters. I’m also thankful for the encouragement and critique I have received from a dear friend who has taken time out of her own very busy schedule to read and comment on draft chapters that I’ve sent her.
Seventh, I am grateful for an abundance of works by churchmen of past generations, and our own day, by which my faith has been built up in multiple ways. (In particular, this year I’ve been reading—albeit skimming through many of the reproduction-of-original-texts portions—the classic work on The Creeds of Christendom by Philip Schaff, and rereading The Descent of the Dove by Charles Williams, in addition to my regular diet of sermons, podcasts, etc.)
Finally, I am grateful for the confident assurance of God’s providence,
the almighty and ever-present power of God, whereby he still upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance, but by his fatherly hand … since all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they cannot even move.
To close with the words of John Milton, paraphrasing Psalm 136:
Let us, with a gladsome mind,
Praise the Lord, for he is kind:
For his mercies shall endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
