Is it easier to be thankful in hard times?

This week we will set aside a day to be thankful.  We do this in the context of unbelievable prosperity and wealth.  As part of our ritual of Thanksgiving we will participate in a feast that at times borders on gluttony. Many will, as part of the ritual, watch football games, parades and go shopping.  Black Friday begins for some retailers on Thanksgiving afternoon and part of our Thanksgiving ritual will be to spend, in some cases, to excess.

In the midst of all this opulence it is sometimes easy to be forgetful.  If the opposite of Thanksgiving is ingratitude, the soil from which ingratitude grows is forgetfulness.   When we have all we need and then some, it is hard to remember what it is like to not have enough.  Many, if not most of us, have never, ever known what it is like to literally not have enough.  We may have not eaten what we wanted, but we have eaten.  We may not have had new shoes or attractive shoes, but we have only gone barefoot by choice.  We sleep out as a camping trip not because that is our only option.  We have a hard time not being forgetful because we have no real lack to remember.

I don’t believe it is easier to be thankful in hard times.  The thankful heart will look at a full plate and say, “Thank you”; it will look at a sparse plate and with equal vitality say, “Thank you.”  A person who isn’t grateful for a little will likely not be grateful for much.  A person who is truly mindful of blessings with much will likely be thankful for the small blessings when those were all they had.   

Which brings me to the curious passage of scripture that started these musings.  The man of God had lost his freedom, his space was cramped, stank and it was darker than the blackest night.  But words of thanks swelled from him lips.  I’m not talking about Paul in prison.  I am talking about the troubled prophet Jonah:

  

But I will sacrifice to You
with the voice of thanksgiving


That which I have vowed I will pay. 
Salvation is from the Lord.” 2:9

This was before he rode the vomitus express.  This was his moving song of worship from the belly of the fish.  There doesn’t appear to be any promise of rescue.  He could have anticipated the other exit at the moment. 

In view of his deplorable attitude while on his mission and in the aftermath of Nineveh’s repentance, I find it interesting that in the worst moment, in the worst place, in the hardest time, the prophet’s heart was most grateful.  It may not be easier to be thankful during hard times, but they can be a prompt for remembering and it is memory that is the seedbed of gratitude. 

Happy Thanksgiving and remember to remember