A Week of Thanks: I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up

November 24, 20112 Comments

I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up
Originally Published 08/19/2011

“Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10)

Bam!
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
Sniffle, sniffle, sniffle.
Mom! Mom mom!!

With my genes, my girls didn’t have much of a chance at grace and my baby girl is no different. So these are the sounds heard in my home multiple times any given day.

It’s the immediate reaction of any child to trouble, the crying out to mom and the running to her side to tell her all about the tragedy and pain.

There’s little I can do most of the time to fix the problem. My baby’s fallen and hurt (maybe even angry) and while I can’t change the fact of her fall and no Band-Aid is going to alleviate the temporary soreness, I can kiss her, cuddle her close and tell her I love her. And so I do.

Then I fall down, tripping over my own sin, or another person who invaded my space, or an obstacle I didn’t foresee, or an unexpected pit in my road.

To whom do I run? What is my immediate response, my instantaneous reaction to pain? What is yours?

For some, it’s to hold our bruises close for a while and to snap at any bystanders who offer to help us stand back to our feet. Maybe even hide our heads in embarrassment for the spectacle of the fall in the first place.

For some, it’s to call out for help from those nearby, asking them to both hoist us up and even bear the burden of our weight for a while as we wobble around on a weakened leg.

For some, it’s to haul out our own first aid kit and apply ice and bandages to our own wounds and refuse the expert care so readily available.

For some, it’s to sit without moving, paralyzed by fear. What if our leg is broken? What if we never walk again? What if . . . what if . . . what if . . . ?

In Beth Moore’s study, Daniel, she notes how his immediate response to the king’s edict prohibiting prayer was to go “to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10).

He didn’t worry first and then pray. He didn’t try to fix the situation through his political abilities and then pray. He didn’t even concede defeat and stop his public prayer habits, choosing instead to silently petition God at night while others slept.

Daniel prayed. It was his initial reaction; it was his only solution.

Then there’s the matter of what he prayed. Sure, some of us have indeed trained ourselves to “take it to the Lord in prayer” without hesitation. We run to his side and bury our noses in the hem of His robe, sniffling out our requests to Him. But are we giving thanks amidst those tears?

Daniel was. Scripture says he “got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God” (Daniel 6:10). When I’m smarting from an injury, I’m more likely to complain about the pain than sing hymns of thankful praise.

Not Daniel. Political enemies, a manipulated king, a dangerous edict, his faith attacked, his life on the line—still Daniel gave thanks.

Paul made the same connection when he wrote,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

Peace in the midst of pain is there for the taking sometimes, and yet we choose anxiety instead. We opt for fear by trying to control our own problems rather than running to God’s side and dumping them at His feet. We allow worry to reign in our hearts and minds by refusing to pray with thanksgiving at all times and in every situation.

I confess I’m a rebel at times. Even though I know I should shove aside my grumbling and choose to be thankful—even when it takes struggling and squinting to see that sparkle of light in a dark place– still I decline.

I dusted off my thankfulness journal this morning after two weeks of shoving it aside. I didn’t want to be thankful. I wanted to feel wronged. I didn’t want some secret formula to maintaining joy in trials; I wanted no more trials! I wanted God to feel pity for me and feel sorry for letting me be hurt. Perhaps what I wanted was an apology from Him.

It’s like emotional manipulation of the Almighty God. “I’m not going to praise You or worship You or give You thanks or hand over my fears to You until You rescue me in the way I desire.”

It’s handing God a sheet and pillow and pointing to the couch.
It’s ignoring His phone calls and giving Him the silent treatment at the dinner table.
It’s holding my breath until he gives me what I want.

And it’s just about as effective as all those tactics. So when my tantrum is done, I pray and I give thanks. Reluctantly at first, perhaps, and yet I try. Maybe the next time I trip and fall, I pray with thanksgiving immediately because I have learned that gratitude shifts my focus off my need and onto the face of my Deliverer.

Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.

Thanks for Everything

October 3, 2011October 3, 20112 Comments

For those reading Lisa Harper’s book, Stumbling Into Grace, along with my small group, today’s devotional will match up with her fifth chapter: “Cat Appreciation Day”

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“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NIV)

There I was, sitting at the cafeteria table with my kindergartener. When she had seen me in the hallway on the way to lunch, she grinned and waved so hard that her arm propelled her whole body into swaying back and forth. Now, here we were munching away at peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinking lemonade together in the middle of her school day.

And I was thankful.

Thankful for a school that allows me to pop in to have lunch with my kids in between their math lessons and their reading time.

Thankful that my daughter grinned when she saw me. Thankful that my first grader introduced me to all her friends. Thankful that I got a hug and a big kiss from each of my older girls. Thankful that, for the moment at least, Mom isn’t too embarrassing and kissing her cheek in public hasn’t become “uncool.”

Thankful that kids all around the cafeteria waved at us. Thankful that my daughters have found and chosen such great friends, knowing that who they play with on the playground and sit with at lunch makes a difference.

So very thankful.

Not that everything in my life is perfect and I live carefree, without worries or problems. But if we are only grateful in the perfect moments, we’ll never give thanks at all.

We train our kids before they can even repeat after us to say “thank you” every time we hand them the graham cracker or the cup of juice. It’s one of those universal mom techniques that somehow we all know how to do even though it isn’t written down in a parenting manual.

Hand child cracker. Tell child, “Say ‘thank you!'”

What cracker has God handed you lately? Have you heard Him prompt your heart for a thankful response?

Sometimes we begrudge the praise He expects. Sometimes we make our worship come with strings attached.

I’ll give thanks—sure, when His gift is sufficient for my need. This cracker isn’t enough to sustain me or satisfy me.

I’ll give thanks—sure, when He cleans up all of the messes and spills around me and I can sit and enjoy this outstretched cracker without distraction, fear, worry or messy troubles on my right or left.

Yet, there is power in gratitude, in contentment, and in trusting the God who always gives good gifts.

Not power in vague thankfulness and the sweeping praise of generalities, though. Not quoting Paul who was ” always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and agreeing to be thankful but never saying why.

Ann Voskamp in One Thousand Gifts said, “I discover that slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life” (p. 40).

Yes, and it is the deep thanks, the specific and the named gratitude, that transforms.

It transforms us.

Giving thanks makes Daniels out of us, people of consistent prayer, going before the throne over and over through our every day and thanking Him. Just like Daniel, who “three times a day . . . got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10).

Before the issuing of an evil decree written specifically for Daniel’s destruction . . . he prayed and gave thanks. After the decree . . . he prayed and gave thanks.

Giving thanks for him was never circumstantial.

Gratitude transforms something else, too. It turns the insufficient into sufficiency. It alters our circumstances.

When Jesus stood on a hillside surrounded by more than 5000 people, He could have denied God praise. Weren’t these men with their families out in the country for a good reason? Hadn’t they come to hear the teachings of Christ? Hadn’t they patiently listened all day? And now it was late and they had nothing to eat and nowhere to go for food.

Jesus fingered a lunchbox with loaves and fish and eyed the hungry crowd before Him.

Was the gift God had given enough?

Not in the slightest.

And yet Jesus lifted the basket high and “gave thanks” (John 6:11) and suddenly there was a feast that fed the thousands on the hillside and included leftovers.

Ann Voskamp says, “Jesus embraces His not enough . . . He gives thanks . . And there is more than enough. More than enough! Eucharisteo (giving thanks) always, always precedes the miracle” (p. 51).

We don’t give thanks after the miracle. Sometimes our miracle depends on our giving thanks.

So when God hands us a cracker, we don’t remind Him of the three-course meal we asked for; we thank Him for the gift He’s offered. We insist that our heart be content.

We express praise, true and heartfelt, for a God who sees our need and responds with grace and generosity. In so doing, we express to Him that we trust His gift-giving and act on the belief that “your heavenly Father knows that you need them” (Matthew 6:32).

For what are you thankful today? Don’t just nod and offer the two-second prayer, “Thanks for everything.” Think hard. Dig deep. Be specific.

And give thanks.

Thanking God for shared lunches, for tea parties, for evenings at home, for knitting, for cozy sweaters and cool fall sweater-weather.

If there is one book I could encourage you to read (other than your Bible) this year (and I’ve been busy reading many), it’s Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts. Please don’t miss out on reading this one.

I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up!

August 19, 2011August 23, 20111 Comment