Be Careful For Nothing and Give Thanks In All Things

Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving so it is a day to give thanks (sorry if that is stating the obvious).  However, giving thanks is important as it is possible to let your troubles and things that you are naturally not thankful for dominate your thoughts and feelings.

I have noted in the past that Philippians 4: 4-9 is a good scripture passage at these times of thanksgiving.  It begins, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice.”  Whenever I hear that passage, I cannot help but hear the beautiful aria from Handle’s Messiah play in my head.  I do restrain myself from breaking into an attempt to sing it out loud, at least in public.

One of the beautiful aspects of the Messiah is that the text is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.  In the NRSV the next verse is ‘Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God’.  The words that come to me however, are from the KJV, ‘Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God’.  It does, after all, seem easier to remember song lyrics than prose passages.

For me, ‘Be careful for nothing: resonate much differently than “Do not worry about anything.”  Putting aside the beauty and poetry of the phrase '' Be careful for nothing”, the phrase has a deeper and more profound resonance and meaning.  It is interesting that Word prompted ‘be careful for’ and suggested I might use ‘careful   about’, or ‘carful with’, or ‘careful of’.  None of those are appropriate which is not surprizing but then either is ‘do not worry about anything’. 

‘Be careful for nothing’ does not mean that I should not take care or be careless―even though I’m sure Lorna would agree, if asked, that I can be careless about some things at times.  I understand it to mean that I should not let anything interfere with my giving thanks to God in all things.  I do not say that I give thanks to God for all things.  I am not able to go that far but, rather, I try and give thanks to God in all things.  The trial and tribulation and slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that life presents to me are not necessarily sent by God in my theology.  They can be a challenge and sometimes overwhelming, but I give thanks that God is with me on my journey in the good times and the not so good times and even when times are downright bad. 

Therefore, on this (Canadian) Thanksgiving Monday, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” 

May you be blessed this day and every day on your journey.

Truth and Reconciliation

 Last week, Canada celebrated the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities.  I have been deeply moved by the news of the discovery of the buried remains of 215 bodies at the former Kamloops Residential School.  Since then, there have been similar tragic discoveries at other sites. 

In my search for how to respond to this situation I turned to a quote by Victor Frankl, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” 

The question facing me and all Canadians is, in the space between the stimulus i.e., the revelation of this horrific example of the effect of the terrible chapter in Canadian history, and our responses, is how do we choose to respond to that information?  As a middle class, now more than middle-aged, white Canadian man, I am aware that I cannot presume to provide a response that is appropriate for the survivors, the families of the 215 children, or any member of the First Nations in Canada.  However, in my desire to respond, I am writing this reflection and offer of assistance and support. 

I was inspired by the news item of people placing shoes in memory of some of the victims whose remains were discovered.  This brought to mind my visit to the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem in 2007.  I was deeply affected by many of the exhibits which commemorated the impact on the Jewish people and the individuals who suffered and died in the Holocaust.  I was particularly moved by the exhibit of a multitude of shoes belonging to prisoners who perished in Bergen-Belsen and other camps.

That the Holocaust was a manifestation of evil is not in doubt.  I have not been aware that the Residential School system put in place by our representative has been named as a manifestation of evil.  Perhaps this has been done – I deeply hope that it has and will be recognized as just that.  It was evil and the effects of that evil are still being felt to this day in the lives of the survivors and the descendants of those who suffered that evil. 

The power of the Remembrance Centre brough home to me the need to remember in a permanent way those who suffered and sometimes died through the actions and neglect of officials in the Residential School system both as individuals and as a system.  A Residential Schools Remembrance Centre would give a permanent and concrete testimony to this terrible chapter in the history of the Canadian Nation and be a focus for collective memory and help ensure that the residents shall be remembered in our national psyche.

I do not have any concrete suggestions at this time regarding how this can be moved forward.  I do know that truth must precede reconciliation and the discovery of the unmarked graves of so many children who were captives in these institutions is a first step.   The reconciliation can and must take many forms following the truth of this tragedy. 

Let us acknowledge that truth on our journey and may those who are on this journey be blessed.