The reality of Thankfulness

Music touches us for different reasons.  The beat of the music often draws us to it, from a slow rhythmic vibe to a heavy blood pumping beat and everything in between from syncopation to straight rhythm we are often attracted by the way music moves us…

or doesn’t.

Some of us are moved by a certain style of music, for some it is blue-grass “picking and grinnin”, others like how pop music makes them want to move, country music, rock and roll, praise and worship , rap, classical music, Jazz music and the list could go on, each style is liked when it feels good to our souls when we hear it.

The music we really fall in love with (regardless of style) has lyrics that we identify with, especially when the music is religious in nature.  We often contect with a message in a song that describes something we have gone through or we connect with it when the words of a song expresses a certain emotion we have been feeling for a while but haven’t been able to put words to and the song does that for us.

During the Thanksgiving season, as some of you know, we play only Thanksgiving music at our house.  The list of songs we play is has almost 140 different tunes. The list itself takes a little over 8 hours to play.  When we start listening to this music at the first of the month things are great, the songs are very enjoyable and makes us feel like we have transitioned in to another Holiday.  Which we have.  This music colors this part of the year for us, it makes us feel like we are in the Thanksgiving Season…

…But…

…about 10 days into playing these songs of thanks, they get somewhat tiresome to listen to.  At first I thought that maybe it was because it’s the same songs over and over again and we just have gotten tired of listening to them.  That however isn’t it, and if you think it is you haven’t considered how many people have sang certain Christmas tunes. There are multiple versions of every Christmas song from O Holy Night, Carol of the Bells, Rudaolf the Red Noise Reindeer, Let it Snow and so on and so forth… Some of us tirelessly play the same Christmas Album over and over again…

…and we never seem to get tired of those songs…

So that can’t be it.

A few years ago I realized why we always hit this “slump” about half way through the Thanksgiving Season.  It is a sad reality but a true one, We have gotten tired of giving Thanks everyday, hearing the same theme of “thanks” or “gratitude” in every song and want something else to listen to that has another topic, or another message its proclaiming.  Why?

Because  we are not as thankful as we need to be.  If our hearts were thankful we would never tire of hearing the Thanksgiving Music.

So what do we do?

Well…

We keep on playing the Thanksgiving play list. In reality –  it takes about two days to get over the “slump of it all” before the songs take on a life of their own in our hearts.  Yes, there is a turning point where I realize I need to be more thankful for things than I really am, so I confess the sin of not being as thankful to God for His many blessings as I should be and I start counting them one by one.  Blessings of things in my life I really do not deserve, prayers that have been answered that really should have gone the other way, grace and mercy I have received from God that I really didn’t deserve. Good health a great family and a wonderful church.

During the slump I make myself listen to the words of the songs more carefully. I think about them, meditate on them and as I do they give me a revived perspective, a perspective  I should have had from the beginning…

That God doesn’t owe me anything, I owe Him everything and because of that I should never have a problem being thankful. Though I know this in my mind, it is during this time of confession that it makes it back to my heart where it should always reside.

And that is the reality of Thankfulness.