My house smells amazing as the scent of pumpkin pie floats from the kitchen into my little work place.  Christmas music is playing and all feels right with the world.

But if I’m honest some things in my world are not all right.  Your world probably has a few things not all right, either.  I have circumstances I didn’t ask for, many prayers still unanswered, and I’m guessing that you do, too.  While we both have many blessings and things we are be thankful for, we still sometimes utter thanksgiving through pain-filled hearts or fear-filled minds as we gather around a table filled with food and a few of the people we love.

One little verse haunts us most at this time of year:

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:18

I must confess sometimes that word “all” seems difficult and unloving of Him.  There are many circumstances I find easy to give thanks for.  In fact, every year before we eat, each of us in our home will sit down and write out twenty things we are thankful for.  Finding things to be thankful for is easy because God has given us so many things we can be thankful for.

Finding ways to be thankful in undesirable circumstances is not.  But God’s will for His sons and daughters is not that they naively give thanks for undesirable things that happen, but rather, He asks us in the midst all of those circumstances to find a way to dance in the dark.

To sing a song of praise when your heart doesn’t feel it.

To open your mouth in thanksgiving when the pressure and power of the circumstance has silenced you.

This year our family celebrates with an empty chair at our table and an empty place in our hearts.  I find it hard at times to be thankful in those circumstances.  But if it’s the will of God in Christ Jesus for us to find a way to dance in the dark, we must trust Him and find a way to be thankful.

If we think long and hard about what worship  and thanksgiving do for us in our difficulty, we realize God is brilliant in making this a requirement for His kids.  For the power of that simple dance and our act of giving thanks is really an invitation to bring God near.

“Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” (NLT)  He is enthroned on our praises.  He inhabits and is present where thanks is given.

Abiding.

Available.

Alongside.

And isn’t that exactly what we need when are hearts struggle?   Don’t we need the reassurance that God is near and the comforting reminder that He won’t forget us even when the world is not always right?

Even when our world isn’t always right.

In her book, One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp tells us: “The practice of giving thanks–eucharisteo–this is the way we practice the presence of God, stay present to His presences, and it is always a practice of the eyes.  We don’t have to change what we see.  Only the way we see.”

He knows that when we give thanks, it changes the way we see our circumstances.  It also changes how we see Him.  Too often we forget His strength to sustain the weary heart.  We forget His unending love  and goodness in the cruelty of a world that is not at peace with Him.  We forget that in the end He will redeem every circumstance and that nothing was wasted.

We don’t have to wait to be in God’s presence.  Thanksgiving ushers us in quickly to that transforming power and practice of His presence.  We have an opportunity to let His power transform our pain and circumstances.  Someone once said that any pain not transformed will usually end up being transferred.

I think God knows that we need His presence and power to keep our hearts free of difficult circumstances.

Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Today is a day for giving thanks and I pray you will find the blessing and power in the giving.  But may it continue tomorrow and the next day, and the next.  In the midst of your world’s circumstances, find a way to practice dancing in the dark each and every day and find your strength in His loving presence.