Thanking God for All Things Is Good Medicine

Yes. Somehow Ann told me about this remedy when I most needed it.  Most of what follows is just an echo of her.  I don’t really know Ann Voskamp, though I had the privilege of meeting her once and we even talked a little.  But she is Ann in my life and not some blogger out there.  And she told me to say thank you. 

She told me this when I was in the dark days.  She told me this when I could hardly see how to thank or what to thank for.  And she even told me to say thank you for the hard things.  It wasn't on a sunny day – or maybe it was, I wouldn't have noticed because I couldn't see through my own clouds to know what was happening in the skies.  She said many other things and the way I best described what her writing did for me was it made me able to breathe for just a few minutes and gave me a drop of water in my thirst. 

It was good medicine, this thanking God for all things.  I truly believe God used this treatment to begin my healing.  Yes, there were many other things that helped me to make it through the darkness to find the way to light, but this was one of the biggest ones.  I don’t do it every day.  I don’t hang the “joy dare” around my neck like a gallows. (Oh no! I didn't finish my thankful list! What a horrible person I am! – NO!)  I don’t have to do it just like Ann. But my thankful journal is near and my thankful wall is growing in my dining room and I've started a joint journal with my kids that will be continuing I hope.  Because this is cheap medicine and easy healing.  Well, not always easy – because some things are just plain hard to be thankful for.  But God molds us and shapes us and nothing is really lost that is needed.  Nothing can take us from him.  That doesn't mean we don’t suffer loss, because we do and it hurts and it consumes some days….but He still gives us gifts in it all…even if we lose what we most wanted to keep… we don’t ever have to lose Him. And He holds us together when we can’t hold anything together at all.

So I keep thanking.  I don’t take this medicine as regularly as I should, but I take it often.  My heart readily jumps to thank rather than complain when I have the opportunity.  Do I complain?  Yes.  Does this brings life and health to myself or my surroundings.  No.  The remedy?  A good dose of thanks. 

The world knows this to be true and Ann told me that scientific and medical articles are written about it.  The only lack there is whether or not they know the Author of all that is good in the world or not.  They need to know because all of this goes back to this Just One who loves deeply and sacrificially.  If no other good thing came my way – to know This Love would be enough to be thankful.  While this is true, it is also true I would forget, because I do that.  So God has surrounded me with so many zillions of things to remind me of Him.  Lord, please open eyes so that people can see all that You give.  

Thank You. Again.