Too Thankful To Be Anything Else

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

James 1:2

When Mike McAdams’s wife, Cheryl, was in the intensive care unit in a Nashville hospital, she was barely able to respond. When a friend asked how she was doing, Mike replied, “It’s touch and go. We held hands, prayed, and remembered James 1:2: ‘Count it all joy.’ You know, it’s impossible to be thankful and anxious at the same time.”

It’s hard to be thankful and negative at the same time. When was the last time you felt thankful and resentful? Thankful and lonely? Thankful and angry? Thankfulness seems to take the edge off our negative or self-centered thoughts and actions. Why? It’s because our focus is taken off ourselves and turned toward God. Fifteen times in the Old Testament we find the phrase, “Give thanks to the Lord.” It’s a little hard to imagine saying, “Thank You, Lord” and “Lord, I’m so lonely (or mad, or depressed)” at the same time. After all, if God provided the circumstances that we find to our liking, isn’t He also in control of the circumstances that don’t suit us? Yes—and genuine thankfulness will acknowledge Him in both cases.

A thankful life is not an escape from reality but an evidence of true spirituality.