Finding our way forward by looking backward

Count your blessings, name them one by one,Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God has done.

- from “Count Your Blessings” by Johnson Oatman, Jr

Johnson Oatman, Jr, while a licensed Methodist preacher, made his living selling life insurance. But his real claim to fame was in writing gospel music. In fact, by the time he died in 1922, he had written over three thousand hymns including The Hallelujah Side, Higher Ground, and Count Your Blessings. If 20 the Countdown Magazine had been around in 1897 Count Your Blessings would have been on it so popular was it then. To listen to it now, however, it seems so quaint and “old-folksy”. But if you could push the mute button on the gospel tune (which seems so antiquated to our ears so prone to hearing soulish angst these days) and just muse over the words, there is much to glean here:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Hilda was a dear lady I used to visit on Friday afternoons in my early years of ministry in Chetek. She lived at the local nursing home and during our visits from time to time she would regale me with stories of hers and her late husband's life together and recount how God had provided for them again and again during the dark days of the Depression. It was Hilda who first taught me this song (I didn't grow up in a Gospel church; I grew up Lutheran and I don't think our pastors or our organist had ever heard of it).

While I'm not sure, Oatman may have been inspired to write his song after reading Psalm 77. At the beginning, the psalmist affirms loud and clear that he doesn't just call out to God; he yells and when he yells he does so "at the top of my lungs” (v.1, The Message). The result of all is yelling is that “God hears him.”

But then he explains why he can say this so certainly. His life was a mess, "an open wound that wouldn't heal". He speaks of wringing his hands in duress and being "awake all night - not a wink of sleep" so distraught is he. Awash in melancholy he strums his "lute all through the night, wondering" how to get his life together (vv. 2-6).

In short, the kind of funk he describes is a form of depression that has him so low that he bitterly complains, "Just my luck...The High God goes out of business just the moment I need him" (v. 10). Many of us can identify with him. Life can be pretty overwhelming sometimes and our circumstances can speak a lie to us that, if we allow ourselves, we may swallow hook, line and sinker: "God is not here. He is absent. In fact, maybe there isn't anything to this thing we call faith at all."

But about half-way through his lament, he finds a way forward by

looking backward:

Once again I’ll go over what God has done,
    lay out on the table the ancient wonders;
I’ll ponder all the things you’ve accomplished,
    and give a long, loving look at your acts. (vv. 11-12)

Yes, life has him down - and seemingly, out for the count. But he starts reflecting on God's acts in the past, reflecting on how God has worked on behalf of God's people in difficult days before and finds the hope he needs to rise above the despair that has him in a stranglehold. As he muses upon their history with God – the sea being pushed back in order that the people can make their escape from the chasing Egyptian army, God doing the same thing to the River Jordan at flood stage a generation later in order that they may pass into the land on dry ground – and suddenly a rush of adrenaline hits him:

O God! Your way is holy!
    No god is great like God!

You’re the God who makes things happen;
    you showed everyone what you can do— (vv. 13-14)

For many years running now our fellowship celebrates a day we

call “ThanksBRINGING”. It's a gathering in early November before the high holy days of gun deer season kick in. It's a service all about sharing thanks. The chairs are arranged in an oval so we can look at each other and after a few songs sung just to help everyone transition from life to sanctuary the main act of worship begins. The stories begin - stories of God's provision, God's comfort, God's help – and as people share their personal journeys in it we are reminded yet again that while life is messy, and at times, discombobulating God is good and He is faithful.

We are mostly introverts here (myself and few others excluded) so it usually takes a bit for the stories to percolate but eventually after over an hour or so I feel compelled to shut it down in order that we might finish at the table. The big loaf of bread and regular sized cups await us at the center of the sanctuary (for this gathering there is no piece of cracker and plastic shot glass of grape juice for communion; we're going to feast!). Families and couples come to the table for the elements and then return to their seats and share communion together.

Thomas is a refugee and a pastor from South Sudan

This year unexpectedly we had a family of refugees from South Sudan with us at the gathering. They are friends of a couple who worships regularly at our fellowship and while currently residing in North Dakota were in town for the weekend. Both Thomas and his wife, Joyce, shared stories in the gathering that morning of God's provision and safety in their lives. Also in the gathering was Elisardo, a temporary worker from Costa Rica, working at the rafter factory across the street from Refuge along with one of his co-workers, Pablo, from Belize.

Immediately following the gathering, we set up tables in the

Elisardo prays

sanctuary, get all the food out and sit down to an honest to goodness turkey dinner with all the fixings. Since we are The Refuge International I always like to ask guests from other countries (which we receive more than you would expect being so far up here in the woods) to pray in their native dialect as a way to “seed the atmosphere” and create a desire to pray for the nations here (who are closer to us than we care to admit). So I asked Pastor Thomas to pray over our meal and he led in Arabic for an extended time (clearly it was way more than “Lord, bless our meal together”). But since Eli was with us I asked him to pray as well and he led an equally lengthy prayer in Spanish. Our meal was deeply blessed and then we all sat down together in the presence of the Lord and enjoyed good fellowship along with good food, too.

Some years for ThanksBRINGING someone volunteers to serve as a recorder who writes what is shared so that when we need to be reminded we can turn to the book of testimony and recall how God has answered prayer and provided what we needed for the different seasons of our lives. Unfortunately, it didn't happen this year which is too bad because we heard some pretty good stories. If there is anything I took away from this year's gathering is that whether it is a hard season we are going through or a discouraging one we need to remind ourselves that God is with us and therefore we should not be afraid. Just like he led the people through the Sinai, hostile and forbidding thought it was, still today He leads his people “like a flock of sheep” (v. 20).

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.