In Everything...Give Thanks

I Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. This verse is one that God has drilled into me repeatedly over the course of the last several years. The words “In everything” are quite all-encompassing and inform believers of when they are required to give thanks. I don’t think that many people have a problem with concept of gratitude in general…but we struggle with the “In everything” part. “In everything” means that I am required to give thanks when my son is diagnosed with cancer. I am to give thanks when he becomes so weak from the chemo and the cancer that he passes out in my arms. I am to give thanks when he is so sick with pancreatitis that I lose track of the number of times he has vomited. It means I am to give thanks when I have to drop everything and rush him to the hospital. I am to give thanks when he reacts negatively to a drug and starts hallucinating. I am to give thanks when I my plans get thrown in the garbage disposal and I have to reschedule them…again. It means I am to give thanks when my other three kids are struggling with their lives being repeatedly upended and with Michael getting all of the attention. It means I am to give thanks when Christian adults who should know better show a complete lack of empathy for those kids as they struggle. (This has been relatively rare. Most people have been fantastic.) It means I am to give thanks when I injure my back and can barely walk. It means I am to give thanks when an MRI reveals “something” that appears to be a small mass on my spine. It means that I am to give thanks when during all of this I am watching a degenerative brain disease rob a loved one of his faculties and slowly reduce him to a shell of the person he once was. All of these things have been a reality for me within the last eleven months.

I have been far from perfect in giving thanks. I would be lying if I said that I have never questioned God or complained during any of these difficulties. And yet, for the most part, God has given me the grace to find things to be thankful for even in the midst of heartache and suffering. Giving thanks in the midst of hardships requires me to trust what the Bible says is true about our great God. It comes from a heart that genuinely believes that God loves me and my family and wants nothing but the best for us. It requires me to trust that He is good all of the time and that the suffering that He is allowing in my life and in the lives of my loved ones is ultimately to make us more like Jesus Christ. It requires me to claim His promises in Scripture and live my life accordingly. And when by God’s grace I come to that place of trust, I am divinely enabled to obey the command to give thanks in everything.

Giving thanks in the midst of hardships is a mark of true, Christ-like character. Note that I Thessalonians 5:18 tells us that “this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” This is the only time in Scripture where words “in Christ Jesus” are attached the words “will of God.” What I believe that Scripture is telling us is that giving thanks in all things is the will of God for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who are born-again believers. Giving thanks in everything is something that sets believers apart from unbelievers. The unsaved struggle to fathom how a person could give thanks in everything. And when a Christian gives thanks during the hard times, they stand out like a sore thumb, and they stand as a testimony to the greatness of our God.

The truth is that despite the suffering and hardships, there are many, many things that I have to be thankful for. I am thankful first and foremost for my salvation from sin, and that my eternal home is in heaven. I am thankful for the wife that God gave me and for her love for me even when I am difficult to love. I am thankful that she too will spend eternity in heaven. I am thankful that each of my four children have come to a profession of saving faith. I am thankful for extended family and friends and the many times that they have stepped in to help when it was needed at a moment’s notice. I am thankful for a church family both locally and around that world that has rallied around us and bathed us in prayer. I am thankful for the Christian school that my children attend and the overwhelming support and encouragement that the staff, students and parents of students have been to us. I am thankful for the dozens of generous gifts that people have given us. I am thankful for the Make a Wish boat that we never thought we would be able to afford. I am thankful for the wonderful medical team that oversees Michael’s care and the relationships that we have been able to build with them over the last several months. We are truly in good hands. I am thankful that God has repeatedly connected us with the right people at the right place and time to meet specific needs. I am thankful that God has providentially provided for every single financial need we have had thus far. I am thankful for the safety that God has given us during the many miles that we have logged on the road between Essexville and Ann Arbor. I am thankful for the opportunities God has given us to be a witness for Christ. I am thankful that every indication is that Michael will survive his leukemia and go on to live a healthy life in the future. I am thankful for Michael’s sweet spirit during all of this: I have not heard him complain once.

I firmly believe that one of the reasons that God allowed us to walk this journey with cancer is so that we could experience His blessings in ways we never could have otherwise. We are truly blessed!

The last few weeks have been relatively low key as far as Michael’s chemo is concerned. He has continued to feel good and be his normal Michael self. And his appetite is voracious! On Saturday, November 15th, Michael, Blake, and I enjoyed a day spent in hunting blinds at my brother’s property in Gladwin. We didn’t see a deer the entire day, but it was still good to get out and hunt and enjoy the fellowship at lunch time with my parents, my brother’s family and a few others.

On Monday, Michael and I went down to Ann Arbor for our weekly visit fully expecting to start the second half of Delayed Intensification (his current course of chemo). However, we found that while Michael’s platelets and hemoglobin numbers remained strong, his ANC had bottomed out and was too low for us to move forward with DI. Michael is taking this week off of chemo. We will get labs drawn locally on Monday of next week, and if his ANC is high enough, we will head to Ann Arbor for chemo on Tuesday.

An ongoing project over the last week or so has been getting an elevated deer blind set up on 60 acres in Midland County that I have hunting access to. I had plans to set up multiple blinds and tree stands on that property this summer, but life got in the way. Michael, Blake and I have been working hard on this and currently have the platform set up in the woods. The next step is assembling the walls and roof which we hope to do in the next day or two. We look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving today with family. Happy Thanksgiving!