Speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. [Ephesians 5:19-20 NTE)]
Joe Btfsplk was a character in Al Capp’s Lil’ Abner comic strip. With a last name that sounds likes what’s known as a “raspberry” or “Bronx cheer,” the poor man had a dark cloud of perpetual bad luck hanging over his head. Btfsplk no longer appears in the comics but I think his dark cloud of misfortune has settled over the head of a dear friend I’ll call JB (in honor of Capp’s luckless character). Since JB’s retirement, if something could go wrong, it has and, as soon as one challenge resolves, another one appears. When I saw the photos from his most recent mishap, JB looked as if he’d been tossed around in a giant rock tumbler filled with broken glass and boulders.
I later learned that one of his wounds became infected (meaning a hospital stay) and, upon his release, JB fell and suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon! A modern-day Job, the poor guy can’t catch a break!
JB, like Job, could be described as an honorable and upright person who fears God. Fortunately, JB doesn’t have a group of friends (like Job’s) who blame his misfortunes on his unrepented sins. Nevertheless, like Job, JB probably wants to know the why of his continual trials. But, as a Bible-reading Christ follower who’s read the book of Job, JB understands that only our sovereign God knows why life unfolds as it does.
Paul’s words to the Ephesians were to always give “thanks for everything to God the Father” but, when considering JB’s trials, I wonder how it can be done. Were I under the dark cloud that seems to plague him with an unending downpour of challenges, I wonder if I could give thanks for it all. While giving thanks in some or most things is doable, the Greek word Paul used was pas which meant the entirety—every kind of circumstance. Rather than just the good or even tolerable stuff of life, we are to give thanks for the whole shebang (trials and all)!
It’s not as if Paul said those words flippantly. Like JB, his life was filled with trials and adversity. He suffered through more than his share of floggings, beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonment, persecution, physical infirmity, and pain. Giving thanks in such ordeals and trouble seems impossible until we look at Paul’s words leading up to today’s verses in which he said to “be filled with the Spirit!” [5:18] He also called on the power of the Spirit with his closing words to the Ephesians: “Just this: be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power.” [6:10] He told Philippians something similar: “I have strength for everything in the one who gives me power.” [4:13]
On our own, we might be able to put on a good front—grit our teeth, “grin and bear it,” or wear a martyr’s face while grumbling inside—but we need the power of the Holy Spirit to have a heart that is thankful to God in all things. It is by the Spirit’s power that we can focus on God, on His love, wisdom, and many blessings so that, knowing that He sees the future while we see only the present, we can submit to His sovereign plan with thanks and even joy.
I don’t think Paul’s words mean we have to be happy every time we end up in the ER, are diagnosed with cancer, or lose a loved one. The many psalms of lament show us that grief, anguish, and pain can coexist with gratitude. Rather than denying our pain, sorrow, or suffering, giving thanks during our trials reminds us that beauty, joy, and good still exist in spite of them. We can move from lament to gratitude because there always is something for which we can be thankful in every situation—even if it’s only that whatever happened wasn’t worse! We know that God is present and that He will strengthen, comfort, protect, and guide us through the dark storms of life and, for that, we can be thankful.
Admittedly, being thankful in all circumstances is not easy. Even famed evangelist Charles Spurgeon struggled. “I have not always found it easy to practice this duty; this I confess to my shame,” said the man known as the ‘Prince of Preachers.’ “When suffering extreme pain some time ago,” continued Spurgeon, “a brother in Christ said to me, ‘Have you thanked God for this?’ I replied that I desired to be patient, and would be thankful to recover. ‘But,’ said he, ‘in everything give thanks, not after it is over, but while you are still in it, and perhaps when you are enabled to give thanks for the severe pain, it will cease.’ I believe that there was much force in that good advice.” Indeed, there is!
Several years ago, two friends joined the ranks of widowhood within a week of one another. Because her husband surrendered to cancer several months earlier by stopping all treatment, one woman was not surprised when she joined the club. The other woman, however, went to bed a wife and awoke the next morning to find herself a widow. Despite his looking the picture of health, her husband, having suffered a fatal stroke while she slept, lay dead on the kitchen floor.
Psalm 119, the longest of the psalms, is a song in praise of the Word of God. Since we don’t read this psalm in its original Hebrew, we fail to appreciate its intricate construction. Each of its twenty-two sections begin with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence. Each of the eight verses in those twenty-two sections begin with the letter that introduced it. For example, the first word of the first section begins with alef, as do the next seven verses. In the second section, every line begins with beth. The psalm continues that way up to the 22nd (and last) section where every line begins with the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, tav. 
After feeding a multitude with little more than a handful of food, Jesus sent the disciples across the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida. He stayed behind to send the people home and then, exhausted, went into the mountains to pray. During the fourth watch (somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 AM), Jesus looked out at the water and saw that the disciples were struggling against the wind and waves to keep the boat on course. Seeing their distress, he walked on the water toward them. Seeing Him walking on water, they thought Him a ghost and cried out in terror. Phantoms of the night were said to bring disaster and it was thought that the last thing a boatman saw before drowning in Galilee was a ghost on the water! It’s no wonder they were frightened at first.
Whenever I asked about her boys, my sister would give a vague answer like, “They’re fine…just doing their own thing” It was several years before I learned “their own thing” meant they were breaking her mama’s heart with their mental illness, addictions, and run-ins with the law. Because she kept her pain concealed, she carried the weight of that burden alone for many years.
We enjoy walking in the local Botanical Garden as well as the nearby Corkscrew Swamp. Although both offer plenty of photo ops and pleasant strolls in God’s creation, the Garden offers more color and variety than a swamp any day. Nevertheless, as much as I enjoy the Garden’s beauty and serenity, I feel more at home in the swamp.
Devotions of the Heart 