I just learned of a new friend who just buried their young son who died from inadvertent overdoes of fentanyl. This makes me more than ever aware of this truth: that Jesus makes it clear that a life lived to fulfill God’s dream for creation will involve suffering. But amazingly so, Jesus assures us that there is reason for gratitude. For in the Beatitudes, Jesus’s paths of happiness (Matthew 5:3–12) are linked to suffering. Yet there is a blessing in poverty, Jesus says, to the degree you miss out on the never-enough system, and instead you partake of God’s dream. There is a blessing in the pain of loss, because in your grief you experience God’s comfort. There is blessing in being unsatisfied about the injustice in our world, He says, because in a world of injustice God’s justice comes more and more, and you will feel more and more fulfilled.
With these counterintuitive teachings of Jesus — and other teachings like them — Jesus speaks loudly of gratitude. He shows us the failings of recognitions, especially the recognitions of failings. He will make this paradox most dramatic through His own death — to the point of letting His suffering and crucifixion eventually bring hope and freedom to all humanity, hope and freedom that could come no other way. Here is the deepest lesson of gratitude, then, that we are to be grateful not just in the good times, but also in the bad times; to be grateful not just in plenty, but also in need; to maintain thankfulness not just in laughter, but also through tears and sorrow. James says that we should even “rejoice in trials, because through trials come patience, character, wisdom” James 1:2–3. And Paul says, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have” Philippians 4:11, so he can teach us all “to give thanks in all circumstances” 1 Thessalonians 5:18.
The words “in all circumstances” shouldn’t be confused with “for all circumstances,” of course. But neither should they be thinned to mean “in easy circumstances.” I am learning still every day that even in pain, there is a place of gratitude to be found, a place where alongside the agony of loss and sin we still count and appreciate the hope that remains. You may deeply hurt a loved one, or watch your physical health slide, but you can still be grateful for what days and hours God has given me. But what if you lose more, and more, and more, if bad goes to worse? Perhaps at some point, all of us are reduced to deep sorrow and fear, but my hunch is that when it seems I have lost everything, I can still be able to hold on to my attitude of prayer, my practiced habit of gratitude in prayer, of turning to God in agony and fear and say: I thank You God that I know You hear me, and so when I ask for Your mercy and forgiveness and healing, You hear this as genuine. For this I give You thanks. For the memory of my new friends who used to enjoy but now have lost, I painfully give You thanks. For this ability not simply to rage over what has been taken away because of what I have done, but to celebrate what You gave me on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And so I give You thanks. Tearfully so.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” Hebrews 4:16.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” Ephesians 2:4-5.
“Mercy triumphs over judgment” James 2:13.
“For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you” Psalm 86:5.
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