Since Covid...

I’ve read and heard these two words and said them myself many times in the last several days - “Since Covid…” More often than not it’s a lament of some kind of a loss of freedom, normalcy or predictability of our lives or just a sense of frustration or anger. And there’s plenty of reason to feel these things.

As I contemplate Thanksgiving and the decision to still gather with just my parents and partner even though we don’t share a household, I wonder if I’m just bucking the system and allowing my impatience to make me a rebel. I’m very lucky to be in an area which has had very few cases. In general I think we feel over-confident here, believing we can get away with things that those in larger centres can’t right now.

Despite all of the complexities in our lives because of the pandemic we are still called to be thankful. We are still called to praise God in all circumstances, good or bad, when we’re feeling like we want to or not. Because the very act of recognizing our blessings changes us. It forces us to take a different perspective and to notice how God has been moving in our situation and helping us. It takes our focus off of ourselves and our feelings of disappointment, sorrow or fear and makes us re-frame what we are experiencing.

How quickly we forget that we are living in one of the richest countries in the world, that we are not under direct threat of war or violence or oppression, that we have access to an abundance of food and clean water, that while many businesses have had to close or are still perilously close to that end we have continued to be able to buy whatever we need and have it delivered if we want. Many of us have computers and have been able to visit friends and family online even while isolated. And for those without these things around us - particularly the homeless and BIPOC - even in this time awareness has been raised and people are fighting for justice because we have that freedom.

Thanksgiving needs to translate into Thanks-living. I have written about this before, but it still holds true, especially in times that severely try us. If we each day take time to reflect on what we are grateful for - to pray or keep a gratitude journal or just tell someone else - our mental and spiritual health will improve. God, I’m sure, loves to hear our thanks, but God also knows that saying thank you helps us. It can move us out of despair and worry and remind us that we are not alone but richly blessed by our Creator and others in our lives, including people we don’t know about who are praying for us and working to make our lives better.

Whatever form Thanksgiving takes for you this year, we still need to be thankful. We need to be thankful because God is good and has not abandoned us. We need to be thankful because it helps our hearts and our spirits to heal and rise above our circumstances to something greater. We need to be thankful because so many envy the abundance we have in so many forms. We should not take it for granted but share it.

May we celebrate with genuine thanks all that we have and are because of the goodness of God, and out of that gratitude may we see how we can change the world so that people offer thanks because of us.