When Your Thanksgiving is Redefined

I nearly cried when he said that American holidays didn’t matter for those of us in French class.  Because it meant that my favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving, would be spent in 4 ½ hours of mind-numbing language study.

I’ve never in my life had classes on Thanksgiving.  It’s incomprehensible.

I mean, Thanksgiving?  Just an ordinary day?  No!

Protesting would have done no good, so I kept my mouth shut, but I went home that day seriously deflated.  Not only do I not have the prospect of going home for Christmas, I don’t even have Thanksgiving to look forward to!

It’s ironic, I suppose.  The very fact that I fought so hard against giving up celebrating a day called “Thanksgiving” (at least the way I’m used to) makes me wonder how well I understand thanksgiving.

Giving thanks.

That’s what Paul says is God’s will for us…in everything.

I don’t think his meaning is so much giving thanks for everything, as in listing every single thing in our lives and telling God “Thank You” for each one.  If that were the case, none of us could ever hope to carry out His will for our lives.  (Although there’s nothing wrong with listing at least some things we’re thankful for!)

It seems like giving thanks in everything is more about an attitude, a heart condition.  A thankful heart receives whatever God chooses to give, trusting that is it always for a purpose.

The times I struggle to be thankful are the times when I am not trusting God – not believing that He knows (and will do) what is best for me.  Somehow the pieces that I don’t quite understand fit perfectly into His plan.  If I believe that, I will be thankful.

While I may want to be back in CA, my family crowded around my grandma’s or great aunt’s table, talking and laughing with my cousins, where everything is familiar and comfortable, that is not God’s best for me right now.

His best was a fairly normal day of classes (in a still-uncomfortable place), and a meal with fellow missionaries who graciously opened their home.

I am truly grateful that I did not have to spend the day alone.  That class got out a little early.  That I had friends to be with.  Plenty of food to eat.  A nice apartment to come back to.

I am thankful for little things, like real coffee this evening – a rare treat – and the return of Rue (I walked into my kitchen this morning, and there he was, after days without a trace of him!).

I am thankful for big things, like my NTM account statement that informed me of a gift from someone I don’t even know.

Yes, there’s much to be thankful for.

But I’m not going to pretend that I’m not homesick, because I am.  I miss the people, places, and traditions I’m most familiar with.  I don’t exactly relish giving that up, and if I had the choice, I probably wouldn’t.

Yet the place I find myself in is a valuable one.

When your Thanksgiving traditions get rewritten – when your turkey is chicken and there’s no cranberry sauce and your family is half a world away – you realize you have a choice.

You can live like Thanksgiving is just a day, a word.  Or you can surrender to God and let Him work thanksgiving deep into the very core of who you are.

What comes after Thanksgiving, if it’s only a day of the year?  Black Friday with all its sales and commotion.  But if thanksgiving is a living, breathing reality within you, then – and only then – something entirely different happens next.

It’s called joy.