Who will be joining you at your Thanksgiving table this year? If you are like most people, it will be a much smaller gathering than you are accustomed to. There will be some measure of grief as you pull fewer chairs up to the table and slice into that smaller turkey.

There are lots of reasons to be discouraged in 2020. Businesses closed, some had paychecks replaced with unemployment checks, most have had a friend or family member battle COVID-19, and some have lost loved ones this year. Churches haven’t been able to gather together in person for worship for chunks of the year, and division over masks and politics has threatened the church’s unity.

May I invite James to one of the open seats at your Thanksgiving table? Let me warn you, though, James is the uncle who shoots straight. You might not like what he has to say. But you know he always speaks out of love.

Sitting with icy beverages in hand, complaints start dripping like the oil off the bird in the oven. Your dad grouses about politics, your grandfather expresses concern over financial instability, your sister goes off on anti-maskers, you voice your irritation with your boss, and your mom shares her annoyance about decisions at your church. James listens, sips his cranberry punch, and then quietly interjects, “Count it all joy, my [family], when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2).

Sheesh, Uncle Jimmy, can’t you show a little sympathy to a family struggling through a challenging year? And you’re telling us not just to ignore or minimize how hard 2020 was, you’re telling us to consider the things that made this year lousy a joy? Get a grip, Jim. The things I count joy are the good things in life. The things I offer thanks for are peach sunsets, a steady paycheck, good health, loving family, flash-fried tacos, fresh salsa, and memorable vacations.

James tells us to flip our Thanksgiving gratitude lists and to count the hard, the difficult, and the trials as joy. Now that takes some serious effort. With hearts that heed Uncle James’s advice, some of the following just might make our Thanksgiving gratitude lists this year:

·       Thank you for that frustrating family member.

·       Thank you for my neighbors who have parties that go past midnight.

·       Thank you for my unappreciative boss.

·       Thank you for not knowing from where next month’s rent check is going to come.

·       Thank you for my gossiping co-worker.

·       Thank you that I didn’t make the basketball team.

·       Thank you for a year of quarantine.

·       Thank you for hybrid schooling.

·       Thank you for those who disagree with me politically and say hateful things about people who believe as I do.

How can we thank God for these things? Why would we thank him for trials? To thank God for trials requires radical trust that God is in control and has good purposes even in things that are painful at the time.

Our work to “count it all joy,” is soul-refining work that draws us deeper in our relationship with God. When we work through life’s difficulties and consider how we can possibly count even them as joy, we begin to see our lives a bit more as God does and understand God’s highest intentions for us.

In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, he shares that God’s purposes for his people are to grow us “in splendor,” that we “might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27). Our dazzlingly pure God is purifying us through 2020. Through that lens, we might even say that 2020 has been the best year yet, a year abounding in God’s deep and meaningful joy.

Thanks, Uncle Jimmy. And cheers.

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash