THANKS FOR EVERYTHING?!!

    An inner dialogue reflecting on 1 Thessalonians 5. 16-18

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances..."

Be thankful for all things: for big things and small things,
    For winter, spring, summer and fall.
Be thankful for all things: for short things and tall things,
    For God has provided them all.
Be thankful for all times: for lean times and fat times,
    For moments that pass in a hurry.
Be thankful for all times: for happy and sad times,
    For God says that we should not worry.

Be thankful for all things? It must be your joking!
    For some things I cannot give thanks.
Be thankful for all things? I think I’ll start choking!
    Hey, what about bomb-wearing cranks?
Be thankful for all times? You must be delirious,
    For mean Tweets I cannot be grateful!
Be thankful for all times? You cannot be serious!
    I’ve no thanks for those who are hateful.

Be thankful for all things: for big things and small things,
    I thought I had made myself clear.
Be thankful for all things; for short things and tall things,
    With God we have nothing to fear!
Be thankful for all times: for cold times and hot times,
    God’s with us at all times you know!
Be thankful for all times: for bright times and dark times.
    In darkness God’s light still does glow.

I cannot be thankful when there is much sadness:
    My friend and her hubby have split!
I cannot be thankful when there is such madness:
    From work I am ready to quit!
You say, “Oh, be thankful!” but I have no bank full,
    Just an old car, a wife and a kid.
To keep my oil tank full is why there’s no bank full,
    God’s blessings from me must be hid!

You have got a point there. We’ve come to the point where
    This life is a difficult game.
So much is quite unfair, but please don’t give up there:
    God cares for us all just the same.
God really does care friend. God’s blessings descend, friend.
    But we are too busy to see.
God really is there, friend. God’s blessings show care, friend.
    All we have is from God, don’t you see?

That sounds good on paper, but here is the caper:
    What I have I got for myself.
That sounds good in theory, but don’t be so cheery:
    Your God is a good as an elf.
What’s up with a Master unleashing disaster,
    Who lets the world turn out this way?
I may be a real clod, but if there’s a good God,
    The world should be better, I’d say!

Now that is a tough one, a regular rough one.
    We hear that old song all the time.
It’s really a question of who’s lost direction…
    And God gets the blame ev’ry time.
God made us the world, friend, and gave it to us then,
    And what have we done with the gift?
From beginning to end, God has promised to send
    Guidance so we will not drift.

Do I hear you saying that we have been straying?
    That we’ve made a mess of this earth?
If that’s what you’re saying, we’d better start praying,
    and seek God for all we are worth.
Do I hear you saying that we have been playing,
    Ignoring the good things we have?
That God’s not deserting? That when we are hurting
    ‘Tis our God who pours on the salve?

The picture is clearing! I think you are hearing!
    For us God has done quite a lot.
The vision you’re seeing is really quite freeing.
    From God we’ve received all we’ve got!
Thanks to this insight, see it all in a new light
    Feast your eyes and see all that God shares.
Try using your peepers, life isn’t for sleepers,
    A good look reveals that God cares.

The world is a jungle, and often I mumble
    When obstacles clutter my way.
I frequently bungle, I slip, trip and stumble
    And “Thank You!” is not what I say.
Life’s full of big chances and weird circumstances,
    Can I give God thanks for them all?
Life’s full of high fences and coincidences,
     Can I give God thanks when I fall?

At all times and places, in all kinds of cases,
    Give thanks for the good that you see.
There’s always a basis—if only in traces
    Of how good things really could be.
Be looking with great care, there’s sometimes not much there
    For which to say, “Thank you, dear God.”
Be listening with tuned ears, especially in bad years
    For words of hope whispered by God.

Have I got this straight now? It isn’t too late now,
    To offer my thanks to the Lord?
If it’s not too late now, I’d sure like to state how
    My faith is being restored.
I know I am tardy, but I will be hearty:
    Loud songs of praise I will voice.
I know I’ve been selfish, and sometimes quite elfish,
    From here on I’ll always rejoice!

Be thankful for all things, for big things and small things,
    For flowers and bushes and trees.
Be thankful for all things: for weird off the wall things,
    For snow drifts piled up by a breeze.
Be thankful for all times: for high and for low times;
    For memories made with a friend.
Be thankful for all times: the ebb and the flow times;
    For silence when each day must end.

I’m thankful for old things, and all of those darn things
    We market as Rummage or Flea.
I’m thankful for worn things, for tattered and torn things
    That new owner’s welcome with glee!
I’m thankful for singers and good natured zingers,
    For laughter and sighing and tears.
For cornhusks and pumpkins, for old country bumpkins,
    And hound dogs with long, floppy ears.

Give thanks for potatoes and tasty tomatoes,
    For berries and carrots and peas.
Give thanks for sweet red beets, for yellow and green treats
    For honey and hard-working bees.
Give thanks for the tussles that strengthen the muscles,
    For growing, for dying, for birth.
Give thanks for the hard fights, the new lows & new heights,
    For struggles, for learning, for mirth.

I’m thankful for fam’lies; for large ones and small ones;
    For moms and dads, daughters and sons.
I’m thankful for kinfolk: for close ones and far ones,
    For old folks and li’l sons of guns.
I’m thankful for loved ones, those gift from above ones,
    Who love us through thin and through thick.
I’m thankful for buddies: for when water muddies,
    Together, like glue, we do stick.

Be thankful for churches and pretty white birches,
    For quilts keeping homeless folk warm.
Be thankful for hymnbooks and even crochet hooks;
    For shelter to weather each storm.
Be thankful for teachers and even for preachers,
    For grace-filled expressions of care.
Be thankful for people who meet ‘neath a steeple,
    For Jesus and Good News to share.

Be thankful for all times, for lean and for hard times,
    For moments that slip by too fast.
Be thankful for all times, for old times and new times,
    The present, the future, the past.
Be thankful for all things: for tried and for true things,
    For courage to answer God’s call.
Be thankful for all things: for Christ in your life things.
    For God has provided them all!
                                                    James E. Thyren © 2021*

*Parts of this poem date to November 1980 when it was first preached as a Thanksgiving Sermon for the East Guilford and Unadilla Presbyterian Churches.

It has periodically been revised and updated and presented at a meeting of Susquehanna Valley Presby-tery, Community Thanksgiving Eve Services in West Pittston and Wilkes Barre, and in the Presbyterian Churches of West Pittston and Wyoming, PA.. The latest tinkering and tweaking continued until three hours before I preached it on November 21, 2021 at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania.