Be Careful For Nothing and Give Thanks In All Things

 

Be Careful For Nothing and Give Thanks In All Things

Today is 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.

 

Are Our Relationships with God High Maintenance?

 

I recently spent a couple of days looking after our (I really should say my wife’s) cat while Lorna was away visiting a friend.  This was the first time this opportunity fell to me.  Trixie the cat and I have a rather strained relationship as she has never really trusted me after being taken in as a feral cat. We have speculated about this with no real answers’ forthcoming.  In any case, Trixie and I both survived the experience. 

However, what became clearer than ever before was that Trixie is a very high maintenance cat.  We have all probably experienced or know about relationships that are high maintenance as opposed to some that are less so.  Trixie is definitely high maintenance.  I know that Lorna has no question about it being worthwhile. 

As a result of this experience, I got to wondering about the relationship between God and people.  Is that relationship high maintenance and, if so, so what?  In my experience personally and as a Spiritual Director, it seems that the relationship between God and people takes a lot of conscious effort on the part of the people of God.  Often, we are not aware of how God is present and active in our lives.  As modern people in a secular world, we have forgotten how to recognize that presence.  We may be aware of what it takes to recognize where God is present in our lives.  However, we often do not know how to respond to that.  If people are part of a Christian community, hopefully they will be given information about how to identify and respond to that presence.  They are called to gather together as a community to worship God and, hopefully, are encouraged to study scripture, to pray regularly, study, and to share that experience of God with others through acts of kindness and Christian charity. 

However, even if we know God’s presence and blessing in our lives, we can easily ignore and avoid what it takes to maintain that relationship.  We might have good intentions about doing more to keep God in our conscious awareness and deepen that relationship but things in life seem to get in the way of doing that. We can sometimes, conveniently or not, forget to make that effort.  Sometimes life does seem to get in the way of doing those things.  If we neglect to keep up our end of the relationship, the relationship will wither and even die.  However, God is always present in our lives and that relationship can be resurrected and reestablished. 

I will use an analogy to illustrate this. Everyone dreams, and scientific studies have shown that dreams are necessary for our psychological and physiological health.  Many people will be aware that they dreamed last night when they awaken in the morning.  However, many people have difficulty remembering their dreams.  However, if they pay attention to their dreams they will begin to remember them more frequently and in more detail.  They can pay attention by recording their dreams and making associations with the images in the dream.  In that way, dreams are also high maintenance.  They require attention, and work to maintain the relationship that you have with your dreams. 

Now I believe that dreams are one way in which God maintains the relationship with us.  Culturally we have forgotten the language of dreams – dreams are, in effect, God’s forgotten language in our culture today.  But, even if you don’t subscribe to this understanding of dreams, they are important for our health and wholeness as human beings, and it is beneficial to pay attention to them.  Regardless, it takes two to tango.  We must keep our part of the bargain – our part of the relationship.  It definitely is a high maintenance relationship; it requires work to maintain but it is definitely worth it.  That is exactly with same with my relationship with God. 

My relationship with Trixie – not so sure but I will keep trying. 

May you be blessed to keep working on your relationship with God.