Most Thankful

John had horrible acne as a child. Now, these days there are great treatments for acne that you can buy over the counter but back when John was a child having bad acne meant regular trips to the dermatologist for dry ice treatments, harsh chemicals and time under an ultra violet light. John would later recall that when he left the doctors office his face was red and oozing and swollen and would stay that way for days.

Needless to say John wasn’t the most popular kid in school. So on nights when many of his peers were on dates, John would spend endless hours studying his Bible, underlining passages, talking and crying to God. Though he didn’t understand, then, why a loving God would shackle him with such social burdens, today John Piper is eternally grateful. And so are the millions of others around the world, like me, who have been impacted by his thought provoking preaching and inspiring books such as Future Grace and Don’t Waste Your Life.

Unlike John, Charles had the perfect life, or so it seemed. He was rich, powerful and at 38 in the prime of his life. Then, as if God began pulling at a loose thread, it all began to unravel. His boss was under criminal investigation. But he would never go to jail. Charles, as his right hand man, though, would. Just months after being on top of the world Charles soon found himself in a prison cell, disbarred, disgraced and discouraged. But what seemed like the end of the world to some meant salvation for Charles. Because it was in that prison cell that Chuck Colson discovered the love of God and once he was released founded Prison Fellowship International, the largest prison ministry in the world.

As I was putting together the list of things for which I was most thankful this holiday season I thought about John and Charles. I also thought about Franklin Graham and the Apostle Paul and so many others. You know, it’s easy to thank God for the good things in our lives. I’m overwhelmingly grateful for my beautiful wife, my three healthy children, my house, my job, and my friends. But what about the bad things? What about the times when things don’t go our way? I wasn’t very thankful when my high school sweetheart broke up with me. In fact I cried for months! But if she hadn’t followed her heart I never would have had the opportunity to follow mine and meet the perfect woman God had created for me!

God’s word says, “I know the plans I have for you…plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope!” (Jer. 29:11) But in order for God to bring those plans to pass, in order for God to make “all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28) he needs to drive. And oftentimes it hurts when he wrestles control of the wheel away from our hands. But God loves us so much. He knows that we want to be happy. But he also knows the only thing that will make us happy, temporally and eternally happy, is Himself. So John has acne. Charles has a criminal record. I have a broken heart. Lazarus dies. (John 11) and Paul is blinded on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9) What’s your problem?

If we truly want to be the person God created us to be, to live up to our full potential, we need to stop trying to understand God and start trusting him. Then thanking him! Paul says in Ephesians 5:20, “Always give thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God.” Give thanks even when it doesn’t make sense, even when you don’t feel like it. You may not understand why you lost your job but God does. And if you’ll let him, like John and Charles and Paul, he might just turn the worst thing that ever happened to you into the best thing; the thing for which you are most thankful.