We often overlook the mountain for the fissure within it. A friendship’s forest hides behind a conflict’s tree; a lifetime of provision behind a year of privation; love’s ocean behind anger’s wave. When we see something is wrong with the world, what should we give, or give up, to make it right?
God confronts the people for whom Asaph sings: “Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. …If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. …Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
The paragraph in which Paul confesses that he is the worst of sinners begins: “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy….”
Our lives are so blessed, our world so good, that we can still tell when something is wrong. So before anything else, we thank the one who bestows every good and perfecting gift for pressing and breathing us into a shakable shape and lack-able life.
To a week converting what we would take for granted into that for which we do offer gratitude.