Eight months into a global pandemic, how can we stop for Thanksgiving? I mean, after all, not only has this thing lasted 8 months, but it recently kicked up a few notches and we’re back into “Purple” haze… People have died, our own Curt McConnell being one of them, people have lost their jobs, favorite stores and restaurants have closed for good, the country is more divided than ever (one might dare to hope that perhaps a pandemic would bring us together?). Why should we celebrate Thanksgiving?
Ah, but I would say, “How can we NOT pause for Thanksgiving?”
The Bible tells us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Wait, what? ALL circumstances? How is that possible? Am I supposed to give thanks when I’m sick? Or when a loved one dies? Or when the world is going crazy all around me?
Yes. You are.
Notice that it doesn’t say “Give thanks FOR all circumstances”! It says “Give thanks IN all circumstances!” That means that no matter what is happening, we can and should give thanks. Because that is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus. Gratitude, even in the midst of difficult times, is the proper posture for the followers of Jesus. Because when we give thanks, we acknowledge Who is God, and THAT we trust Him.
Nobody likes suffering, but suffering is a part of life. If we withhold our thanks during suffering we become little more than fair-weather friends of Jesus!
It’s not easy, yet whoever said following Jesus was easy? They lied to you! It isn’t easy, but it is the best thing in the world, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, including the cessation of this pandemic!
This Thanksgiving I want to encourage you to consider thanking God in the midst of a pandemic as a supreme act of faith: faith that sickness, death, hardships and those dog-gone masks are not the final word, Jesus is.
And I want to encourage you to consider making a special Thanksgiving gift to The Fount, as an act of resistance to the powers of darkness and despair that are trying to destroy our lives. By sowing into your church, you say “God is not done with this world yet!” By sowing into your church, you say “I am thankful for what God is doing in and through The Fount!”
You can mail or bring your checks made out to “The Fount” to the church at 18225 Bushard Street, Fountain Valley, CA 92708, or you can go online here and make your online gift. Be sure to designate it “Thanksgiving.”
On behalf of the church staff, I want to wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving. In whatever way you choose to celebrate it this year, remember to “give thanks in all circumstances.” And thank YOU for your generous gifts to The Fount this Thanksgiving!
In Gratitude,
Pastor Glen