Over this past month, the Lord has been teaching me a lot about gratitude–which seems appropriate since its Thanksgiving time.
For most of us, Thanksgiving is a time to gather around a table with our friends and family to enjoy a nice meal. Maybe, your family runs a 5K or dresses up to root for your favorite football team. All of which are great traditions. Nevertheless, in the midst of the hustle and bustle that comes with entering the holiday season, it can be really easy to forget the reason we celebrate the holiday in the first place. I’ll be the first one to say I’ve done it.
Thanksgiving originated in 1621 in the Plymouth colony. However, there is some controversy about what actually happened, so I’m just going to stick with the version the most of us were told as children. After enduring a bitter winter–that many of the original settlers did not survive— the pilgrims received some assistance from a Native American tribe, the Wampanoags, who taught them how to live off of and cultivate the land. After the very first harvest, they held a three day festival to celebrate the provisions they’d received. It was a time to show gratitude in spite of the hardships they had faced, and a way to thank the Native Americans who had given them the tools they needed to survive. This festival is now known as the First Thanksgiving. However, it was not successfully declared a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln did so in the 1860s.
In this same way, Thanksgiving is still a time for us to take a look at our lives and see the things we, ourselves, have to be grateful for. A strategy I plan to continue using long after the holiday has past.
I know from experience that it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Especially, when you feel your prayers have gone unanswered. When you’ve keep praying and praying and praying, but it still doesn’t seem like it’s enough. You start to wonder if God even hears you. Doesn’t he care? Maybe you’ve been praying for him to help mend your relationship, or for him to bring healing to a person that you care about deeply.
Whatever it may be, I have found that it is all too easy to become focused on the answers or resolutions that you want to come that you start to tunnel vision. You forget to look around at the wonderful things God has and is doing around you; the other prayers that God has answered.
This past June it became apparent that my sister, Bridget, was having some health issues and we traced it back to most likely having started several months before. She had started steering herself away from more greasy foods, which in itself would have been harmless if it weren’t a side effect of something bigger. Unknowingly, her condition had continued to progress and she extremely gradually began to eat less and less because of the pain she would feel, so slowly that it was nearly impossible to notice. That is, until it started becoming painful for her to eat anything. At this point it was apparent that something was wrong, and being unable to eat (because of the pain) led to lots of undue weight loss. We took her to several small doctor’s offices in our rural area and after several weeks the doctors still had no answers. We were advised to take her to an ER at a hospital in Denver (a three hours drive away) that specialized in caring for children, so we did and she stayed there for nearly a week. During which she was diagnosed with Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome (SMAS).
This is a condition when the fat pad supporting the Mesenteric Artery above the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine) has shrunk, or deteriorated causing the artery to instead put its weight on the doudenum, pinching it (in some cases all the way closed), blocking anything from passing through. It is known as a compression syndrome and is very rare (0.1-0.3%), and not a ton is known about it, or many of the other types of compression syndromes. We were told that this could possibly be treated by receiving nutrition through a feeding tube and that in about three months it could possibly be gone.
Long story short, it is four months later and she is still on a feeding tube (unable to eat), not much had changed with the SMAS (at least not to our knowledge), her pain has gotten worse, and we’re still praying and searching for answers.
So, in a society where nearly everything we do tends to be centered around food, how can you celebrate a holiday like Thanksgiving when you are unable to participate in even the most typical of traditions? How can you be thankful when it seems like God is not hearing your prayers and it feels as though nothing good can come of this situation?
Romans 8:24-28 says,
“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Resolution will come in God’s time and in his ways. Even if we don’t know what to say to him or understand it, whatever the situation, we’re left to trust that he does all things for a reason. Although, we may not yet know what the reason is, and it may not be the answer we want or expect.
I have found it is easier to put my problems and worries into his hands than to dwell on what I cannot control. It has opened me up to a world of new things and allowed me to feel lighter and happier. I’ve noticed the smaller things God has been doing in my life, which in way can be reassuring when my sister’s condition continues to progress and gives me a more positive outlook on life. In this way, I can follow what we are told to do in Psalms 100:1-5 and take a stance in gratitude, despite the trials, to give thanks to God for all he has done and is going to do in my life as well as other’s.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the Earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
—Psalms 100:1-5
I’m thankful that I can still celebrate with my family. I’m thankful that we can still laugh. I’m thankful for my home, for my dogs, for love, for grace, for sun, for rain, for joy and tears, and that He’s always here. For joyful songs, to dance and praise, for the fact that we’re (my family) together. It’s just amazing!
I’m hoping to continue to use this blog to share my story leading up to, during, and after the race. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have for me, please don’t hesitate to ask! If you feel led to partner with me you can do so in a number of ways: by joining my prayer team, supporting me financially (my support link is attached to the blog page), or by sharing mine and my future Squad’s stories. If you know anyone who might be interested in serving in this ministry I’d be happy to talk to them.
Thank you so much for reading this! I hope you continue to follow along on my journey. Please pray for my future team and I, that God would open our hearts to what He has in store for us, and that He would bring healing to my sister (that He would take away her pain).
Hope you have a great day!
This is a pictures of me and my family from Thanksgiving this year.
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