Gratitude: The Power of Showing Up

It was under unique circumstances I learned one of my life’s greatest lessons of gratitude.

The voices of the congregation rose sweet and pure, purer than I’d ever heard in my life. Our tremulous faith, tender yet mighty, was transmitted in song like a desperate, beautiful sonnet brought to the Savior by love so fierce it seemed it might shatter the vessels which bore it. 

I held my baby close to my heart as my husband and I gripped the hands of our toddler and young son. The children seemed to understand that today was a day for seriousness, and with angelic faces, they watched us intently. The walk to church along cobbled streets and broken roads had been quiet and brisk that morning. The country we called home was 99.9% Muslim, and in recent weeks persecution of Christians had risen at an alarming rate. 

We were gathered with our brothers and sisters for worship even as reports circled of police raids in house churches throughout our area, arrests of fathers in front of their children and imprisonment of mothers and their nursing infants. Some who would not renounce Jesus were tortured. We feared the worst, and we prepared for it.

But we came. Brave and determined, focused like flint on the One we love, we gathered together here in this place. We had counted the cost. We only asked that He would help us glorify Him to the end.

The beauty of that morning, the sunlight painting our faces in gold leaf like a portrait of courage and devotion, will remain in my heart always. It was a sacred space, a holy experience.

None were arrested that day. We did not suffer. We did not die. Rather, in the face of imminent #persecution for our faith, we were given a magnificent, unexpected present. We were given the gift of #gratitude. #Thanksgiving Share on X

Gratitude for such a Savior, who gave His life that we would know Love that cannot be imprisoned or killed.

Gratitude for the ability to sing to the Lord, to lift our voices in harmony above the dusty hillside where men captured men and bound them in chains, raising our praise to the heavens where there are no shackles, no iron bars. 

Gratitude for a relationship with God, a God who as we give our worship gives back His presence and delight. A reciprocal relationship between the created and their Creator.

Gratitude swelled and rose and rushed like a mountain out of the recesses of the earth all the way to heaven, our hearts spilling forth all we possessed. Jesus was enthroned upon our praises that day, and He was all that mattered.

I cannot forget that feeling. I miss it.

Gratitude is perhaps sweetest amid persecution, if we will show up. 

Now I live in a place where I am free to worship, but I find showing up to give thanks so much harder than it was in a foreign land. It is easy to take for granted the freedom of showing up, the freedom of singing to the Lord in a public place.

This month of Thanksgiving in the United States, far from that sweet golden morning so long ago, I am choosing to show up. To pour out all I possess to the One who is worth it all. In my mind’s eye, I will gaze once more upon the dear faces of the worshippers around me as they risked it all to give glory to Jesus while the sun lit their faces golden. And my heart will flood with gratitude again.

No matter where you are, what you suffer, or what liberties you enjoy, show up with me this Thanksgiving. Let us give Him every bit of our worship and devotion. He is worth it all.

Lord, help me show up this Thanksgiving with gratitude that cannot be shackled. Dwell among my praise and fill my heart with joy in Your Presence. Amen.

@audreycfrank