A Posture of Praise and Thanksgiving

A few nights ago, members of my church gathered together to have a casual prayer and praise night. It was a time for people to get together and give thanks for what God was doing in their life and to share with others how they've experienced God's faithfulness in goodness.

I've been to quite a few of these in my lifetime, and I always find it interesting how difficult it is for people, including me to step forward, stand up and share what really should be an answer to a simple question: What has God been doing in your life for which you'd like to give thanks? And in my experience, there's generally a gap of a few seconds to a few minutes where people shuffle in their seats and stare at their shoes as silence echoes in the room.

Of course, there's always an element of fear of speaking in public. I can understand that people tie themselves in knots in their own minds around how people might respond to whatever they share. A lot of it might be silly, but understandable. For example, after a young mother has brought the congregation to tears about how God has helped her cope and heal after losing her twin girls to leukemia, one might be a little self-conscious about walking up and sharing that he's really glad that God helped him find the wallet that he thought he had lost at the neighborhood pizza store.

But I think a part of it is that the posture of praise and thanksgiving isn't natural to us. Sadly, human nature is not predisposed to giving thanks, it's predisposed to complaining and whining about how our lives aren't as comfortable, convenient or happy as we think they ought to be. I firmly believe that one of the reasons why churches have praise and prayer nights is that it creates a discipline which human inertia would otherwise not take us to. You throw a bunch of people in a room and the inclination is to (more pejoratively) have a group misery-loves-company whine session or (less pejoratively) share problems in their lives for others can commiserate and problem solve. And to be clear, there's a place for that. It's entirely appropriate to share burdens and constructively provide counsel and prayer.

As for myself, I'm a problem solver by nature and that's not, in this case, a good thing. The wrongheaded focus on economy of effort and "productiveness" means that to stop and celebrate the good news of others and the praise God for good things going on in my life or others tends to lag behind in priority behind finding problems, caucusing around those problems and trying to fix them. But the truth is that to take time for thanks is tremendously productive. It reminds us of where we stand in the world and the rightful supremacy of God in our lives. It reminds us that even in a world where we're prone to fall into cynicism and despair, that God is redeeming pockets of broken lives right before our eyes. These reminders and lessons are critical in helping us live rightly.