Grateful Pause
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“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1
It is the week of Thanksgiving, and you may not be feeling grateful and wanting to celebrate with friends and family. You may be in the stages of grief, loss, illness, cancer, trauma, financial problems, or dealing with situations that overwhelm you. It is difficult to see through this fog of worry, fear, and anxiety and be grateful this Thanksgiving. Your head knows you have been blessed, but your heart aches and does not feel joyful. This may bring feelings of guilt because you know others whose situation is worse than yours.
This may be the first Thanksgiving without your loved one. I know so many of you that are experiencing the holiday season for the first time without your spouse, your special person. You are not in a festive mood, but you want to be around your family. Maybe it is time to take a grateful pause. Remember, pause? Pause means you stop doing what you are currently doing, thinking, or feeling and take a break. The pause does not change your circumstances or your feelings, but it gives you an opportunity to breathe and focus on the good of your life.
The pause gives you permission to be grateful and reflect and remember. You are not living in the past but being thankful for it. It is being grateful for the time and memories and who you were in the past. The past may have caused your current problems, then pause and look forward with hope believing God will redeem you and your past.
In this week of Thanksgiving, anchor yourself in your blessings, not your losses. Being thankful and grateful has more to do with your attitude than your circumstances. It is how you look at life. It is pausing your sadness and grief and remembering the joy of life with your loved one. It is looking at pictures, telling stories, remembering the laughter and the smiles, and giving thanks to God for the life you have loved and will always love. Sadness will seep into the joy but that is how life is. Joy and sorrow just mingle together.
Even though your life may not be what you had hoped or planned, you can be grateful you have life. There is always something to be thankful for because you have breath and life and hope and Jesus. When we focus on the past and what could have been and what we have done wrong or the wrong done to us, we miss the blessings in front of us. When we focus on the future and the worry and anxiety it brings, we forget the present. God is only with us in the present. Just today. That is why the future brings such worry and anxiety because we do not see God in it. Be thankful for today. This moment. Look around you and be grateful. Even though it is not what you planned or hoped for; it is what you currently have so find the blessings in this moment. You can be sad and still give thanks.
A grateful pause can become a way of life each day. That is, pause each day and give thanks to God for the day. God gave you life and breath to live this day. It may not be how you envisioned life to be, but it is what you have today. When it is difficult to see through the hurt and brokenness of your life, speak out loud about the things that are around you and give thanks. Thank God for the chair you’re sitting in, the clothes you are wearing, your toothbrush and toothpaste. Look out the window and be grateful for the trees, the sky, the birds, the leaves and whatever you see. Pause your thoughts from your problems and focus on what is around you and speak in gratefulness for what you can see and that you have eyes to see.
It is being grateful for life even when you do not understand it. I gave my friend a small one-inch Jesus made of rubber that I received from one of the local churches. She is struggling with her health and her focus each day becomes her physical body. It has been difficult to pray and focus on Jesus. I told her that now she has a little Jesus always with her. We all need a little Jesus.
We have a big Jesus always with us. It is being grateful when we do not feel God’s presence, that His Holy Spirit is always with us. We are never alone. God is good. God is faithful. God loves you, and God’s love endures forever.
It is pausing and being grateful even when we do not understand life and have no answers to the “why” of life. It is inhaling gratefulness and exhaling trust and obedience when we do not understand.
Pause in gratefulness.
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