In All Circumstances Give Thanks

“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice ALWAYS? Pray WITHOUT CEASING? In ALL CIRCUMSTANCES give thanks? These are among the more difficult commands we are asked to follow as Christians. As discussed in previous posts, unceasing prayer is the key to joy and gratitude. In a right relationship with God it is possible to discern things we can be grateful for in even our darkest circumstances, and to look back at some of our most difficult seasons and recognize how God used it for our good and for His good purposes.

A Literal Pain in the Behind

Many years ago, I was leaving my night shift hotel job when I was suddenly afflicted with a severe pain on my behind. Walking across the street to my car was excruciating, each step feeling like a sharp stab. I arrived home in great distress to my wife Jean, then seven months pregnant with our first child. She nursed me as best as she could that first night. When my condition was no better the following morning, she took me to the doctor, who recommended immediate surgery. I was laid up for ten days. I was about to be a father, and I had smoked cigarettes for going on seventeen years. I had been sincerely trying to quit in anticipation of the event, but in my own power I kept failing. I did not want my son to see his dad chained to his nicotine addiction. The night before my attack of pain I had prayed fervently for God to help me. The night before. Because I was laid up (and on pain killers), I could not get to my cigarettes. When I finally could, my desire had been taken away. In the meantime, Jean was asked to perform difficult nursing tasks throughout. God put us through those painful circumstances for a season, for which our whole family remains ever grateful.

Fleas!

“Fleas!  The place is swarming with them! Oh, Betsie, how can we live in such a place?”

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom describes her family’s experiences in Holland leading up to World War II, and their anti-Nazi activities that ultimately led to their arrest and imprisonment. Only Corrie would survive the war. Eventually, Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to the infamous Ravensbrück concentration camp. At risk of torture and death, they prayed with their fellow prisoners and led scripture studies with a Bible they head smuggled into the camp. Corrie described a subsequent move to their permanent barracks:

The place was filthy. Somewhere plumbing had backed up. The bedding was soiled and rancid…. There were no individual beds, but great square piers stacked three high and wedged side-by-side. We followed our guide single file – fighting back the claustrophobia…. At last she pointed out a second tier in the center of a large block. To reach it, we had to stand on the bottom level, haul ourselves up, then crawl across three other straw-covered platforms to reach the one we would share with – how many?… We lay back, struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw. Suddenly, I sat up, striking my head on the cross-slats above. Something had pinched my leg! “Fleas!” I cried. “The place is swarming with them!… Betsie, how can we live in such a place?” “Show us. Show us how.” It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize she was praying. Suddenly Betsie exclaimed “He’s already given us the answer, as he always does. In the Bible this morning, read that part again…” “It was First Thessalonians,” I said…. In the feeble light I turned the pages, “Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone, see that none of you repays evil for evil.” It seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck. “Go on,” said Betsie. “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances.” “That’s it Corrie! That’s His answer, ‘Give thanks in all circumstances.’ We can start right now by thanking God for every single thing about these new barracks.”

Betsie thanked God for the sisters being together, for the Bible, for the crowded barracks, and even for the fleas.

The fleas! This was too much. “Betsie there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”Give thanks in all circumstances,” she quoted. “It doesn’t say ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.” And so we stood between the piers of bunks and gave thanks for the fleas. But I was sure Betsie was wrong.

Corrie went on to describe many miracles that began to happen in the barracks including a bottomless bottle of vitamin drops, a spirit of sharing and cooperation among the inmates, and clandestine Bible studies and worship services that gave the women hope and were held with more boldness every week. It seemed the guards were vigilant everywhere at the camp except their dormitory. It seemed odd to the sisters. Some months later, Betsie told Corrie that some of the women asked a supervisor to enter the barracks to answer a query about some work they were doing.

“But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards. And do you know why?” Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice. “Because of the fleas! That’s what she said, ‘That place is crawling with fleas!’” My mind raced back to our first hours in this place. I remembered Betsie’s bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for.

Joseph and His Brothers

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. -Genesis 50:20

Jacob’s favorite son was Joseph, and his brothers resented him. Genesis 37 relates how the brothers acted out in their jealousy. As a result Joseph underwent many years of slavery, imprisonment, and broken promises before rising to a position of power over those same brothers. Through it all, Joseph stayed in a right relationship with God, and only through the suffering was he ultimately able to save his family from death. “God sent me ahead of you,” he told his brothers, “to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.” (Gen 45:7) In God’s plan, through one of those brothers can be traced the royal lineage of Messiah Jesus (literally “God Saves”), who would perform the final act of deliverance from death.

A Prayer of Gratitude

So stop right now and say a prayer of gratitude, and ask for help to recognize the divine in the difficult. God is there in pain, in fleas, and even in jealousy and can use them to make us more perfect and complete – if we let Him.