Vocation

I have recently gotten really into podcasts. The other day I was listening to a Ted talk podcast done by NPR that featured A.J. Jacobs. Jacobs is the author of A Year of Living Biblically. In this book, Jacobs discusses his attempt to follow every commandment of the Bible for a year and how this experience influenced him. I was drawn to one piece of his experience in particular, which discussed thankfulness. There are multiple verses throughout the Bible that call us to express gratitude. Jacobs took these verses literally, describing how he made a concerted effort to thank God for even the simplest things.

I know that I should be infinitely thankful, but I’m not always great at doing it. At letting that thankfulness move from my head to my heart seeping into every fiber of my being, so that I feel gratitude flowing through my veins and bursting from my heart. This pod cast led me to the conclusion that thankfulness is a discipline. An important one for people of faith. Thankfulness requires that we regularly acknowledge that God is at work in even the most mundane. That we recognize with our heart what we know with our minds, that we didn’t come to where we are today because we are awesome.

Which is not to say that we ignore the sorrows life hands us. Obviously, thankfulness can be really hard at times. I don’t think thankfulness means swallowing disappointment or sadness and pretending that the world is all rainbows and sunshine. Sometimes life is horrible, and the sky is gray and it doesn’t feel like the rain will ever stop falling. I don’t think the Bible is telling us to lie about how we are feeling. Or to suppress our pain. Rather, I think the call to thankfulness is to keep our eyes open even as we walk through difficult times. To persistently look for God as our world re-arranges. To notice the ways that God is holding us close as we journey through rainbows and thunderstorms alike.

I will bless the Lord at all times; God’s praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1