For a lot of people, tomorrow is going to stink! Out of compassion, many of us have made the hard choice to cancel plans, visits, get-togethers, and parties. We want to travel and gather with those most precious to us and share a feast celebrating the good times we’ve had this year. There might not be anything more 2020 than making us rethink our yearly celebration of gratitude. Thankfully, we serve a God who wants to be with us in the hard times and the good.
Through the gamut of emotions we experience, we can call out to God and he responds with love and understanding. As I was listening to a singer the other day, she wrote in her song about the loss of her friend, “I know there's a God and He hears either way / And I rejoice, and complain / Lift my voice, that I was made / Somebody's listening at night.”
Jesus says in Matthew 11, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He doesn’t call us to get dressed up or perfected. He calls us when we are dirty and worn out, stressed and frazzled, weary and over-burdened. As we collectively limp through the last few weeks of 2020, I hope we can find our rest in the savior who is ready to listen when you rejoice and listen when you complain.
1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because he cares for you.”
As you go around your Thanksgiving Zoom call, racking your brain for something to be thankful for in this no good, very bad, awful, dumpster-fire of a year, I hope at the very least you have found a way to cast your anxieties on the Lord. While it may not remove them, I pray that you know that you don’t need to face them alone.
Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for you!