Sacrifice of Praise

The meal has been cooked, the food has been eaten, the dishes are done, and I am very tired.  I wanted to write a bit about Thanksgiving and something I saw on Twitter today.  Twitter has really become a spot for advertising to continue round the clock.  I saw a quick video for someone promoting their Christmas movie.  They started by stating that this is a time to be happy, not grumpy, and that we should all watch their movie.  I don't really care about the movie, I'm not terribly offended for being sold to on Thanksgiving, I'm more disturbed with the notion that Thanksgiving and the act of giving thanks is often equated with happiness.

Can we be happy and thankful? Absolutely.  Is it a requirement? No.  Thankfulness and happiness are not mutually inclusive.  I've been thinking a lot today about people who have struggled with so much in the last year, in the last months, weeks, days.  Life does not take a holiday for holidays.  People still have struggles, people need to go to the hospital, relationships remain broken, needs remain unmet.  Loss can be so in the forefront of our lives, and yet, we give thanks.

I have been thinking about the European settlers and the "First Thanksgiving".  Half of the people who started out the journey were dead by the time the celebration happened.  Half! Look at the person next to you, they would be gone and you would be celebrating a feast of thankfulness without them.  Those present to celebrate were as every bit unsure of the future as they had been the year prior, probably looking around wondering if they'd all make it to the next year.  I don't know how "happy" the first Thanksgiving really was! Yes, I'll be spreading cheer during the Christmas season as well...you're welcome.

My point is not to be depressing.  It truly isn't.  My hope is to be in some way encouraging to those who may not find themselves happy this Thanksgiving.  To those who feel like they don't know how they made it through the last year, to those who may not have much hope for things to be different in the year to come, I say, give thanks in whatever emotion you find yourself at this moment.  Thankfulness is not an absence of loss or sorrow or trouble.  Thankfulness is a discipline and can happen simultaneously with gut wrenching, heart felt pleadings to God for our situations to be different, for health to be restored, or for understanding and healing in relationships.

Hebrews 13:15-16
¹⁵ Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. ¹⁶ And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

There is a cost to sacrifice.  Something must die.  In the old testament, it was an animal, in the New Testament, it was Jesus Himself, the ultimate sacrifice.  In the sacrifice of praise, it is symbolically, ourselves.  To praise, to thank, we need to humble ourselves to the point we can say thank you.  We need to acknowledge we needed something, to acknowledge we received something we could not attain ourselves.  Or we need to be humble enough to say thank you even for the unfulfilled dreams or for losses.  I'm not always happy when I am humbled.  I'm usually happy when I get what I want.  I'll say thank you all day when I get what I want.  But when nothing seems to be going well, and everything you don't want seems to be showing up at your door, will you say thank you?  Will you sacrifice your desires, your anger, your sorrow even, and say thank you? 

What I want my struggling friends to get from this ridiculous Stacy post, is that it is okay if you don't have a Happy Thanksgiving...as long you have a Thanksgiving.  You don't have to clean up for this holiday, you don't have to put on the happy face pretending that you wouldn't change a thing in your life.  You don't need to complain or bemoan your existence either, I'm not advocating that.  I'm saying it is okay to honestly thank God while crying honest tears.  He already knows what is beneath the surface, don't pretend you are happy when you are not.  God is good all the time, the times are not always good.  In your own sacrifice of praise, you will be blessed for the obedience.   

Happy (or not) Thanksgiving to all!  

© 2014 Stacy Rapp