Giving Thanks

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy Name!

Starting with the words of Psalm 103, I reflect on the goodness of God this year. I have many reasons to be grateful. Many reasons to give thanks. This has been a very unusual year for me in many respects and I cannot but marvel at how very different my journey through the year has been! Ordinarily, one hopes for good things in a new year, better things than the year before. I had started this year with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Hope, because it was a new year. But trepidation because I had just ended six months of joblessness and truly wanted the new year to bring a good job with it. Something I could do to make some income and rid me of my drifting between sadness and laziness.

When you are used to a very demanding job with hardly time to live and enjoy life, and you’re now faced with joblessness, these are two extremes that your body and mind would struggle to adjust to. I had serious withdrawal symptoms! Initially, it felt like I was just on a break from work, like a vacation. After the first month, that feeling was gave way to some desperation and depression. I fought the darkness very hard. I started spending hours just praying and worshiping. Spending time in God’s presence helped a lot. It helped keep the depression at bay. There were still dark days, but nothing beyond control. That was how I survived the first six months.

Now it was the end of the year and the beginning of another one. I didn’t want to go through what I had in the six months prior. I wanted a job. For my good health and state of mind, I needed a job badly. I didn’t want to envisage a future without something to do. I had spending money, at least enough to keep me afloat, but I realized that what I needed more than the money was a means of keeping my mind engaged and my hands busy. I needed to wake up with a purpose for the day, something to look forward to. After going through a lot of books that I had bought and hadn’t gotten round to reading due to my busy life, I itched for something to do. I needed to be busy, to be needed, to be relevant. So I hoped that the new year would provide fresh opportunities.

That new year I was looking forward to is now ending and I am surprised to discover that although I did not have a job throughout the year, I have been engaged in many things, and life has not been as sad and hopeless as I thought it would be without a job. It has been quite a journey and I have traveled over various terrains, but overall, I have cause to be grateful to God. So, today I choose to be thankful and grateful to God for His goodness to me.

So, here I am, at the same point again, looking forward to another new year of better things! How great is our God and how wonderful are His works!!! Like the Bible says, from the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord shall be praised.

How do we account for the events that happen each and every day, and how they sum up to weeks and months and years? Every moment adds up to a day, and we find that the clock ticks away. Before we realise it, the day has ended, the week has ended, the month has ended, the year has ended, a decade has ended and so on! Which stresses the point that we must be wise, and use our time here well. It is not an endless journey. At some point, it will come to an end. A good thought to keep in mind, as we go through our days and work at fulfilling our purpose and living out our time here.

We may not always get the things we want or the things we believe we need. Nevertheless, the most important thing is that we are well positioned within the boundaries of His grace and favour. At any point in time, as long as we remain where He wants us to be, we will find that He takes care of our needs and everything else. We find that like Daniel, we are better turned out than the men fed with the king’s diet. Our role is to find satisfaction in God’s provision and be thankful. His eyes are always watching over us, and as a good Father, He gives us our daily bread.

I am grateful for the past, I look with anticipation to the future, knowing that the Faithful One Who promised will not fail me. I may not have that job I wanted, but I still have hope and in the interim, I am well provided for, and not in need. To Him be all the glory!

 

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