Have you ever watched a lighthearted, predictable Hallmark movie—the kind where you can guess who will fall in love from the opening scene and spot the “unexpected” plot twist a mile away?  It’s a low stakes 90 minutes with a guaranteed happy ending.  These movies can be good holiday fun, but we all know that real life rarely follows that script. 

 

I was recently sitting around a table with friends chatting about Thanksgiving.  As we shared traditions, memories, and favorite foods, one theme stood out: life is complicated, which often means family dynamics and holiday happenings are also complicated.   We may long for the tidy, happy endings of a Hallmark movie, but real life often feels more like a consistent string of plot twists.  Some plot twists are exciting and fun, but others are exhausting and even painful. 

 

Now we’re often encouraged to give thanks this time of year, but before we give thanks, I want us to acknowledge our reality.  There are seasons that are genuinely hard and it’s ok to not be ok.  And if we rush past the complicated and painful parts of our stories in pursuit of an ideal feel-good ending, we risk disconnecting from our own hearts—and that is where the seeds of isolation, anxiety, and bitterness can easily take root. 

 

As my friends and I talked, several shared some of the complex plot twists that have shaped their lives and their experience of the holidays. And I’m guessing all of us can point to some tricky twists in each of our lives.  So what do we do when the plot is challenging?  What do we do when painful realities derail our holiday happy endings?  How do we live out the heart of Thanksgiving when our situation isn’t quite what we would hope for? 

 

Spoiler alert, I don’t have all the answers, and life won’t ever fit the compact plot of a Hallmark movie, but I think the answer starts with honesty and vulnerability.  As we dive into this holiday season, I’m encouraging myself to keep taking baby steps of vulnerability.  I’m continuing to work at being honest with myself, with God, and even appropriate people.  I’m challenging myself to take an honest look at the plot twists of my life that are both encouraging and painful.  Because in my honesty, I continue to find that the Lord is waiting with a healing embrace.   

 

When I can be honest with myself about my unmet expectations, my wounding, and my brokenness, I have the opportunity to encounter the Lord in a deeper and more life giving way.  The truth that there is healing power found in relational depth with Jesus is at the core of the gospel.  When we take courageously vulnerable steps with Jesus, we find his salvation meets us there.  It’s in those places of transparency, where we acknowledge our brokenness, that we most clearly see both our need for salvation and the overwhelming beauty of the salvation Jesus offers.  The risk of being known is intense, but the reward of this vulnerability is a wholeness that unleashes new life into our story.  

 

Knowing ourselves at a deep level, and knowing God’s love for us in those deep places, transforms every part of our lives.  But this knowing isn’t just reserved for us and for God, this knowing is a precious gift that we can give to each other in appropriate ways. It’s not that we need to share every part of ourselves with everyone, but living in vulnerable relationship with those we love and trust can lead to such beauty.  And this Thanksgiving I believe, more than ever, that the beauty of truth being lived out in relationship is the birth place of true thankfulness.  

 

In this moment, it may feel hard to imagine a Thanksgiving holiday that moves beyond cliches and superficial story lines to a beautiful relational depth where true thankfulness overflows.  This journey isn’t for the faint of heart because it’s a series of clumsy baby steps that take time, energy, and courage.  And to be clear, I’m on this journey as much as you are.  I have to keep reminding myself that baby steps are beautiful and that because of Jesus’ abundant love for me, I don’t have to walk this path alone.  This Thanksgiving my prayer is that in the middle of all the tricky plot twists, we would have the courage to be truly known by ourselves, by God, and those we love, and in that space of wholeness, that we would find an abundance of reasons to give thanks.