Give Thanks in the Worst of Times

As regular readers and friends know, this has been a challenging year for our family. It’s been stretching in ways few of us experience outside of loss. And, if I’m being entirely forthright, it’s a year that we’ll be glad to be done with. Which isn’t to say that there hasn’t been anything good, of course. On the contrary, some amazing things have happened—including having the opportunity to write a book for Harvest House. (You’ll hear more about that in the new year.¹)

But without a doubt, 2024 has been a storm, and it hasn’t always brought out the best in any of us.

Don’t Deny the Difficulty

I’m all the more aware of this as we gear up for our first Thanksgiving and Christmas following the loss of several family members, as well as the end of our church in September. And I also know we’re not alone in this. Many people this year are experiencing different degrees of grief, sorrow, and loss—the fruit of our broken world. Holidays are challenging at the best of times, and these are not the best of times.

Depending on the culture we grew up in, we might be tempted to brush off the difficulty we’ve experienced. To either put on a stiff upper lip or wear a mask of false positivity while telling ourselves to always look on the bright side of life. If that’s you, let me encourage you with this right now: don’t.

Don’t deny the difficulty you’ve experienced. What you’re experiencing is real, and so is the pain that comes with it. Let those close to you bear the burden with you.

And as you do, give thanks.

Why We Can Give Thanks

I get it: this sounds strange, perhaps even contradictory to what I just said. The thought of giving thanks in these times is difficult for many. Yet this is exactly what we’re called to do. More than that, it’s what we need to do. Why? Not because of what we’re going through but because God is good, even in the worst of it. I love the way that Richard Sibbes described it:

Whatsoever our condition be, let us never limit God. God’s people should never be better, the times were never worse. Where we be bad, God is good. Times are bad, God is good. He can alter all. When there is no hope of escaping, no likely issue, God can make it good.²

We can give thanks in the worst of times because, in doing so, we can remind ourselves of who God is. God is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6 NKJV). And this is true whether we can see it clearly or when our belief is hanging on by a thread. He is not overcome by our circumstances. He is with us in them.

And that seems like something we can be thankful for, doesn’t it?

Photo by Simon Maage on Unsplash

1. Although, you can spoil the surprise for yourself with a wee bit of Googling. ↩︎
2. Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 4, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 317 (as quoted in Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans, Pastorum Series [Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013]). ↩︎