Be thankful even in the drought of your life

(Photo: Unsplash/Simon Maage)

One of the major holidays in the United States is Thanksgiving Day. The modern national celebration dates to 1863 and it has been linked further back than that to the Pilgrims' 1621 harvest festival. The holiday generally revolves around giving thanks with the centerpiece of most celebrations being a Thanksgiving dinner.

Although prayers and thanks were probably offered at the 1621 harvest gathering, the first recorded religious Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth happened two years later in 1623. On this occasion, the colonists gave thanks to God for rain after a two-month drought.

In a farming society, this would be seen as a very extreme and difficult time since everyone's livelihood was dependent upon farming.

In the modern day, it is difficult for the average person to know what a two-mouth drought would do to your psyche, life, relationships, finances, and outlook on life. Having grown up on a dairy farm in Kentucky, I can recall personally the challenges that came from two-month droughts. If the rain doesn't come at the right time, the rain that comes at the wrong time doesn't initially make a difference in the outcome of that year's crop. Matter of fact, if it rained at the wrong time, it could be just as devastating to the outcome of the harvest as the drought was.

Thanksgiving Day is a time to take inventory of what we are thankful to God for. It is a time of looking inward and outward and asking ourselves if we are growing in thankfulness or allowing ourselves to grow bitter that the "rain didn't come when we wanted it to or when we needed it to".

It reminds me of the story of Lazarus in the Gospel of John. Lazarus died. Jesus waited to send the rain so to speak that would heal Lazarus. Because of this, Lazarus died. Then Jesus showed up. John 11:5 says Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, but still he waited to show his love until Lazarus had died. Maybe you can relate this Thanksgiving season. Maybe you want to be thankful to Jesus, but you feel like he waited too long to do anything about the drought in your life and now any rain he would send won't matter.

Jesus engages Martha and Mary. Up to this time, Jesus had rebuked Martha because she wanted help in the kitchen to make Thanksgiving Day dinner and all Mary wanted to do was sit at the feet of Jesus, learn from Him, and wash His feet with her hair. The glory of a woman is her hair. It's hard to reconcile God's delay in the drought when we have given Him the glory due Him and He leaves us out to dry.

John 11: 2a says, "It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair." What humility! What love! Maybe you can relate. You trusted Jesus. You gave Him the best of who you are. You gave Him your glory. You washed His feet with the best of your life, and He has repaid you by showing up late to the drought of your heart.

All this changed Mary's heart at the death of her brother Lazarus. Jesus showed up after the death of Lazarus and Mary was nowhere to be found. Her grief over the death of her brother had killed her desire to be with Jesus, much less be thankful for Him. Drought in the heart has a way of doing this to our desire to be thankful.

John 11:20 says, "So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house." No Thanksgiving Day for her this year with Jesus! Jesus can wash his own feet from now on as far as she is concerned. She gave Jesus her best and He didn't return the favour, so it seemed.

Martha goes to tell Jesus that her brother would not have died had Jesus been there. Jesus tells her in John 11:23, "Your brother will rise again." He assures her the drought of this life doesn't decide the harvest to come. The amount of rain coming when it is supposed to does not dictate the spiritual harvest God has for our lives if we trust in Him. Jesus says to Martha in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live." What a beautiful, hopeful, thankful thing to focus on this Thanksgiving Day season.

The drought of your heart doesn't dictate the harvest of your soul, thanks to Jesus.

Martha replies in John 11:27, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world."

Do you?

Look what happens in John 11:28, "Then after she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him."

Isn't that cool? Jesus knew Mary was hurting. He could have been offended by her unwillingness to be thankful to Him in a time of grief, but that is not who Jesus is. Jesus always loves. He is good and His love endures forever. I have learned over the years that there are two things I am most thankful for every day and especially this Thanksgiving Day. Those two things are: 1) Jesus is good and 2) His love endures forever. My wonderful wife, Tosha, reminded us of these two things at our annual church-wide Thanksgiving Dinner this past week at Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs.

God's goodness and His love will outlast the drought of your heart. Can I encourage you this Thanksgiving Day season? Be thankful. I think King David said it best in his song of Thanksgiving in 1 Chronicles 16:8,24: "Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness. Let the whole world know what He has done. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever."

God's goodness and His love will outlast the drought of your heart and will bring a harvest for your soul. He promises! Even if He is late to your harvest, wait for Him! Because like the resurrection of Lazarus after having been dead four days, regardless of the timing of His rain, it will be the gamechanger.

While you wait for Jesus' rain in your life, remember, "He is good, and His love endures forever!" The harvest is coming! By faith praise Him for it now. Happy Thanksgiving!