Thanksgiving at Work
Thanksgiving will be here soon. From now until then, I want to share some ideas on how to align your work life with the Liturgical Calendar. But before that, some thoughts about the role of thanksgiving in our prayer and in our work.
Psalm 105 is a "praise and thanksgiving" psalm. There are a bunch of them. (If you read Psalm 105, and some of the Psalms before and after, you'll find they make up a kind of series on this theme.) They basically remind us to thank God for all He's done for us, and praise Him along the way. This psalm recalls what God did for the Jews, especially in freeing them from Pharoah and giving them a place to live (the Promised Land).
There's nothing in the psalm about how some Jews grumbled, even rebelled. It's a positive, more or less ideal recollection of the events of Exodus.
The point seems to be that we need to simply praise and thank God sometimes. Just that. No matter what's going on in our lives, we need to be reminded of the good things we've got and that God's the One behind those good things. We need to be reminded to say "Thank you." Psalm 105 reminds us.
Some days, gratitude comes naturally. For me, it's a lot easier when my work day goes well. Of course some days things don't go so well. On those days, it's a challenge to remember Psalm 105, (even if I just happened to have read it that morning) and keep praising and giving thanks.
But those bad days, when you can still be grateful for all God has given you, are the ones where we grow closer to Him. If we can keep that "praise and thanksgiving" thing going in the midst of our daily trials, it's a real triumph for us, for our spiritual lives. It's something that helps us mature, builds our character. Good or bad days, God is always there waiting for us to take another step closer.
In a sense, then, there really are no "bad" days. Just days that come and go - all a gift of God. (That's why we thank God for the gift of this day when we wake up in the morning.) What we do with them is what makes all the difference. That's what makes them good or bad. So in that sense, what we do while we work, in spite of how we feel, or the bad stuff that can happen to us at work, will make all the difference in our lives.
I'd like to tell you that I'm in "thanksgiving" mode every day, but I'm not. But, happily, even though I've read the "praise and thanksgiving" psalms many times in the past, they've just struck a chord this year for some reason. So I'm reading them more slowly and thinking about them a bit.
It comes at a good time. As I've been meditation on this, I realize that it hasn't been the easiest year for a lot of people. Lots of folks have lost money, lost their jobs, some even lost their homes. Maybe you're one of them. Being grateful may not come so quickly or naturally if you are.
We're living in times where being grateful and thankful will prove hard for some of us. It's not easy out there. I'm just grateful for the work I have right now.
Psalm 105 is a "praise and thanksgiving" psalm. There are a bunch of them. (If you read Psalm 105, and some of the Psalms before and after, you'll find they make up a kind of series on this theme.) They basically remind us to thank God for all He's done for us, and praise Him along the way. This psalm recalls what God did for the Jews, especially in freeing them from Pharoah and giving them a place to live (the Promised Land).
There's nothing in the psalm about how some Jews grumbled, even rebelled. It's a positive, more or less ideal recollection of the events of Exodus.
The point seems to be that we need to simply praise and thank God sometimes. Just that. No matter what's going on in our lives, we need to be reminded of the good things we've got and that God's the One behind those good things. We need to be reminded to say "Thank you." Psalm 105 reminds us.
Some days, gratitude comes naturally. For me, it's a lot easier when my work day goes well. Of course some days things don't go so well. On those days, it's a challenge to remember Psalm 105, (even if I just happened to have read it that morning) and keep praising and giving thanks.
But those bad days, when you can still be grateful for all God has given you, are the ones where we grow closer to Him. If we can keep that "praise and thanksgiving" thing going in the midst of our daily trials, it's a real triumph for us, for our spiritual lives. It's something that helps us mature, builds our character. Good or bad days, God is always there waiting for us to take another step closer.
In a sense, then, there really are no "bad" days. Just days that come and go - all a gift of God. (That's why we thank God for the gift of this day when we wake up in the morning.) What we do with them is what makes all the difference. That's what makes them good or bad. So in that sense, what we do while we work, in spite of how we feel, or the bad stuff that can happen to us at work, will make all the difference in our lives.
I'd like to tell you that I'm in "thanksgiving" mode every day, but I'm not. But, happily, even though I've read the "praise and thanksgiving" psalms many times in the past, they've just struck a chord this year for some reason. So I'm reading them more slowly and thinking about them a bit.
It comes at a good time. As I've been meditation on this, I realize that it hasn't been the easiest year for a lot of people. Lots of folks have lost money, lost their jobs, some even lost their homes. Maybe you're one of them. Being grateful may not come so quickly or naturally if you are.
We're living in times where being grateful and thankful will prove hard for some of us. It's not easy out there. I'm just grateful for the work I have right now.
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