I have a Thanksgiving playlist.
Yes.
A Thanksgiving playlist.
Christmas gets playlists.
Lots of them.
Christmas has entire radio stations that start playing in October, which is another discussion for another day.
But Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving gets a meal.
A parade.
Football.
And then somewhere around 4:00 in the afternoon everybody starts putting up Christmas decorations.
Thanksgiving barely gets twenty-four hours.
But I think Thanksgiving deserves a soundtrack.
So every year, I have this playlist I come back to.
Songs about gratitude.
Songs about grace.
Songs about looking back over your life and realizing—
God has been good.
Not that everything has been good.
There’s a difference.
Some years have hurt.
Some prayers didn’t get answered the way I wanted.
Some things I thought God would fix stayed broken longer than I thought they should.
There have been losses.
Disappointments.
Questions.
Things I still don’t understand.
And yet—
God has been good.
Maybe that’s what thanksgiving actually is.
Not pretending everything is good.
But discovering that God is good even when everything isn’t.
And every year I add a few songs to the playlist.
Songs I’ve heard during the year that made me stop.
Songs that somehow found words for something going on inside me.
And this year?
There are quite a few being added to the old Thanksgiving playlist. In fact this may be the longest list of new additions I’ve ever had.
1. “Glory Glory” – We The Kingdom.
There’s something about the word glory.
It’s bigger than thank you.
Thank you says—
God, I’m grateful for what You’ve done.
Glory says—
God, I’m overwhelmed by who You are.
And maybe we need both.
Because thanksgiving can easily become a list of things.
Thank You for my family.
Thank You for my health.
Thank You for my home.
Thank You for providing.
All good things.
But eventually gratitude moves beyond the gifts and turns toward the Giver.
At some point you stop looking at what’s in His hand—
and you look at His face.
Glory.
Glory.
Not just—
Look what God gave me.
But—
Look at God.
2. “Just That Good” – Passion and Kristian Stanfill.
That phrase gets me.
Just that good.
Because sometimes we make gratitude way too complicated.
We think we need to come up with something profound.
Something theological.
Something eloquent.
And sometimes all you really need to say is—
God, You’ve just been that good.
I can look back over my life and find things I wish had happened differently.
But I can also look back and see grace.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Places where He provided.
Places where He protected.
Places where He carried me when I didn’t even realize I was being carried.
And after a while, you run out of explanations.
You just know.
He’s been that good.
3. “Blame Jesus” – Drew Parker and Steven Curtis Chapman.
I love the idea behind that title because we usually use the word blame when something has gone wrong.
Who did this?
Whose fault is this?
Who is responsible?
But what about the good things?
What about the person you’re becoming?
The grace that found you?
The doors that opened?
The strength you somehow had when you thought you had none left?
The peace that showed up when it didn’t make sense?
Who gets the blame for that?
Jesus.
Go ahead.
Blame Him.
4. “Everyday Hallelujah” – Phil Wickham.
Maybe that’s the kind of thanksgiving I want more of.
Not just a Thanksgiving Day hallelujah.
An everyday hallelujah.
Because gratitude was never supposed to be confined to the fourth Thursday of November.
There ought to be a Monday-morning hallelujah.
A stuck-in-traffic hallelujah.
A sitting-in-the-hospital hallelujah.
A bills-are-paid hallelujah.
A no-idea-what-happens-next hallelujah.
An ordinary Tuesday when nothing particularly amazing happened except that you woke up, took another breath, and God was still God.
An everyday hallelujah.
5. “I Made It.” – Cain
Maybe you hear a title like this and think it sounds like somebody celebrating themselves.
Look at me. I made it.
But anybody who has walked with God very long knows there’s another way to say those words.
I made it.
But not by myself.
I made it through that year.
I made it through that loss.
I made it through that season I thought was going to crush me.
I made it through days when I wasn’t sure I had another day in me.
And when I look back, I can see fingerprints that aren’t mine.
6. “God Is Good” Phil Wickham with CAIN.
Three words.
God is good.
We say them so often they can almost become automatic.
But there’s something different about saying God is good after you’ve lived a little.
After you’ve had some prayers answered—
and some that weren’t.
After you’ve celebrated in hospital rooms—
and cried in them.
After you’ve watched doors open—
and stood confused in front of doors that stayed closed.
It’s easy to say God is good when the story is going the way you hoped.
But eventually you discover that the goodness of God isn’t measured by the goodness of your circumstances.
God is good because goodness is who He is.
And that makes those three simple words a pretty powerful Thanksgiving declaration.
God is good.
Period.
7. “Look at What God Has Done” – Lost & Found
Look.
That may be one of the most important words in thanksgiving.
Because sometimes you have to stop long enough to notice.
Look behind you.
Look at where you were.
Look at what you survived.
Look at who showed up.
Look at the prayers God answered that you’ve already forgotten you prayed.
Look at the things you once begged God for that have now become so normal you barely notice them.
Look at your table.
Look at the people around it.
Look at your life.
Look at what God has done.
Maybe gratitude begins when we stop looking for the next thing long enough to remember the last thing.
Because we forget.
We forget how scared we were.
We forget how impossible it looked.
We forget the nights we prayed, God, please.
And then somehow we find ourselves standing on the other side of it.
And what once felt like a miracle—
has quietly become normal life.
So every once in a while, you have to turn around.
And look.
8. “When I Survey” – Tommee Profitt and Jenn Johnson.
Because eventually Christian gratitude always leads back to the cross.
Before I thank God for what I have, I remember what He gave.
Jesus.
Grace.
Forgiveness.
A cross.
An empty tomb.
A life I could never earn.
Now, suddenly thanksgiving becomes bigger than counting blessings.
It becomes worship.
9. “God, I’m Just Grateful” – Elevation Worship
Sometimes that’s all there is to say.
God—
I’m just so grateful.
Not because I understand everything.
Not because I got everything I wanted.
Not because life turned out exactly like I planned.
I’m just grateful.
For grace.
For another day.
For people I love.
For prayers answered.
For prayers You answered differently than I asked.
For doors You opened.
For doors You closed.
For carrying me through things I didn’t think I could walk through.
Thank You.
And that gratitude has a way of waking something up inside us.
11. “I Thank God” – Strings & Heart.
That’s about as simple as it gets.
I thank God.
Maybe that’s why I like it.
Because gratitude doesn’t always need a long explanation.
Sometimes you just start naming things.
The people God put in your life.
The prayers He answered.
The doors He opened.
The doors He didn’t open—and now you’re grateful He didn’t.
The moments He provided when you weren’t sure how things were going to work out.
The grace you didn’t deserve.
The second chances.
The thousand little things that seemed ordinary when they happened but look a whole lot different when you turn around and see them all together.
I thank God.
Not just for the big stuff.
For the everyday stuff too.
For the things I noticed.
And maybe even more—
for all the things He did that I never noticed at all.
12. “Back to Life” – Phil Wickham.
Now we’re getting to the heart of the whole thing.
Because Christianity isn’t really about God making bad people a little better.
Or unhappy people a little happier.
Or helping us clean up our lives and become a nicer version of ourselves.
It’s about resurrection.
Dead things coming alive.
People who were lost being found.
People who were far from God being brought near.
People who had no hope discovering hope.
Back to life.
That’s what grace does.
Grace doesn’t just improve your life—
it gives you one.
And when you really begin to understand that, thanksgiving stops being something you do once a year.
It becomes the only reasonable response.
Because I’m not just thankful for what God has given me.
I’m thankful for what God has done in me.
He brought me back to life.
13. “It Really Is Amazing Grace.” Phil Wickham and Crowder
Now this is a Thanksgiving song.
Maybe not the kind you’ll hear playing while somebody is carving the turkey.
But listen to what the song is doing.
It’s remembering.
I was lost.
Now I’m found.
I was blind.
Now I see.
I was bound.
Now I’m free.
I was dead.
Now I’m alive.
And right in the middle of all of it are two words that might be the simplest definition of Thanksgiving there is:
Thank You.
Thank You, Jesus.
Because real gratitude usually starts with remembering.
You remember where you were.
You remember what God did.
You remember what could have been.
And suddenly thank You means a whole lot more.
That’s what I love about this song. It takes words Christians have sung for generations—Amazing Grace—and makes you hear them again.
Not just as the name of an old hymn.
Not just as something we sing at church.
But as my story.
I was lost.
He found me.
I was chained.
He freed me.
I was dead.
He gave me life.
How do you respond to that?
You testify.
You tell somebody what He did.
You sing hallelujah.
You say thank You.
And maybe that’s what Thanksgiving should do to us.
It should turn our gratitude into testimony.
Not simply—
Look at everything I have.
But—
Look at what Jesus has done.
Because when I really stop and remember where I was, where I am, and Who brought me here—
there’s really only one thing left to say.
Thank You, Jesus.
It really is amazing grace.
14. Give Thanks – Zack Winters
So this was a late addition. And what I mean by that is, a good friend of mine, Seth Parnell, sent me this song earlier in the year. I listened to it, liked it, and then completely forgot about it.
That is, until October 1st.
Seth brought it up again while we were on our way to lunch. I actually bought the song at lunch, but I had absolutely no intention of listening to it until November 1st.
Why?
Because we were, after all, in the first throes of October Music, and I have a rule: You play October music and nothing else in October.
Those are the rules.
However, on the way back to work after lunch, Seth wanted me to hear it.
I told him, “You know this means I have to break my rule.”
He didn’t really say anything.
So I put it in the queue to play next.
And I’m glad I did.
It really is a great song. If you listen to it, make sure you stick around for the bridge, because the lyrics there are not only awesome—they’ll make you smile and maybe even laugh.
I’m glad “Give Thanks” made it into the mix this year.
Even if I had to break one of my own rules to get it there.
15. “Homesick for Heaven” – Phil Wickham.
Every gratitude doesn’t just look backward.
It looks forward.
There’s a line in the song about one day getting to thank Jesus face to face for the grace He has given.
Think about that.
We spend our lives saying—
Thank You, Jesus.
Thank You for saving me.
Thank You for carrying me.
Thank You for providing.
Thank You for my family.
Thank You for the people You put in my life.
Thank You for the prayers You answered.
Thank You for the grace that somehow kept showing up.
But we say all of that by faith.
We’re thanking Someone we love—
but have never seen.
And then one day—
face to face.
Maybe that’s part of being homesick for Heaven.
It’s not simply wanting to leave this world.
It’s knowing there is Someone on the other side of this life I desperately want to see.
Someone I’ve spent my whole life thanking—
and one day I’ll finally get to thank Him face to face.
And I love the picture in this song of seeing our children run into His arms.
Because that’s what I want.
More than success for them.
More than comfort.
More than everything this world tells me I should want for them.
I want them to know Jesus.
I want them to love Jesus.
And someday, I want to see them run into His arms.
That’ll be a Thanksgiving.
No empty chairs.
No goodbyes.
No hospital rooms.
No funeral homes.
No heartbreaking phone calls.
No wondering how much time we have left with the people we love.
Just home.
Maybe that’s why this playlist has become something I look forward to every year.
Because I think I finally figured out what a Thanksgiving playlist is supposed to do.
It helps me remember.
Some songs make me look back.
Look at what God has done.
Some make me look at right now.
God is good.
Some remind me where I came from.
I made it.
Some remind me what Jesus did for me.
It really is amazing grace.
Some simply give me the words—
I thank God.
And then this one makes me look ahead.
Homesick for Heaven.
Back.
Around.
Ahead.
That’s Thanksgiving.
Remembering what God has done.
Recognizing what God is doing.
Trusting what God has promised He will do.
Because I forget.
We all do.
Yesterday’s miracle has a way of becoming today’s normal.
The thing we once prayed desperately for becomes the thing we walk past without noticing.
The blessing we couldn’t imagine living without becomes something we barely remember to say thank You for.
So maybe we need something that interrupts us.
Something that makes us stop.
Something that helps us remember.
For me—
apparently—
that something is a playlist.
So once a year, before Christmas music takes over everything, I turn these songs on.
I turn them up.
I look back.
I look around.
I look ahead.
And somewhere in all of it, I find myself saying it again—
Thank You, Jesus.
