Dayenu: A Pre-Thanksgiving Thought

 

“Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.”  Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

I am the luckiest person on the planet. I am.  

Can you say this?  And mean it? 

If not, I want to issue you a challenge: Why do you think you are not? 

If you do not feel this way, I encourage you to write down precisely why you feel—because it would be all about your feelings—that you are not. My friends often say I should say I am blessed, not lucky, blessed being a more Biblical term. And they are correct, 

But I feel lucky every bit as much as I am in fact blessed. Lucky because I do not deserve any blessings from him … at all. Blessed because our God is such a loving, lavish Heavenly Father. Do you know him this way? 

Let’s pause so you can write down precisely why you do not feel this way. To drive home the point, I will even give you a blank line: 

“I am not the most blessed person on the planet because:” _________________ 

“Here is why what I have is not enough:” ________________________________ 

Perhaps this will serve as a rude awakening.  

Dayenu 

I have come to love the Jewish Passover song, “Dayenu.” Dayenu is sung during the Passover meal. Dayenu translates: “It would have been enough.” Here is just a sampling. I have included the entire song at the end. 

If He had brought us out of Egypt, and had not carried out judgments against them – Dayenu, it would have been enough! 

If He had given us their wealth, and had not split the sea for us – Dayenu, it would have been enough! 

If He had split the sea for us, and had not taken us through it on dry land – Dayenu, it would have been enough! 

Through this song, my Jewish friends are acknowledging everything God has done for them—already done for them—and realizing it is enough—more than enough. They realize that at any point, if the Lord had stopped blessing them, it still would have been enough—more, in fact, than they ever deserved.  

My desire, my purpose, is to get you into the mindset of, “After all that Jesus has done for me – everything from this point forward is just icing on the cake.” 

I am not trying to just upgrade your gratitude attitude; I am seeking to reset your entire perspective. You see, I want to not just look back and see all the Dayenus in my life, but to have this forward-looking Dayenu perspective, such that I see the Dayenus as they come. 

In fact, what I want is to live a life of Dayenu in every detail of every moment of every day. I want to see that I am already the luckiest, most blessed man on the planet, and   anything else is just Jesus lavishing more grace than I deserve. And I want to see that at any point, over all these years, Jesus could have stopped the blessings, and surely it would have been enough – way, way more than just enough. 

For truly: “Jesus saved me from Hell. Everything after that is just icing!” 

Dayenu!        

Dayenu

If He had brought us out from Egypt,

and had not carried out judgments against them

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had carried out judgments against them,

and not against their idols

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had destroyed their idols,

and had not smitten their first-born

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had smitten their first-born,

and had not given us their wealth

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had given us their wealth,

and had not split the sea for us

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had split the sea for us,

and had not taken us through it on dry land

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had taken us through the sea on dry land,

and had not drowned our oppressors in it

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had drowned our oppressors in it,

and had not supplied our needs in the desert for forty years

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had supplied our needs in the desert for forty years,

and had not fed us the manna

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had fed us the manna,

and had not given us the Shabbat

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had given us the Shabbat,

and had not brought us before Mount Sinai

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had brought us before Mount Sinai,

and had not given us the Torah

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had given us the Torah,

and had not brought us into the land of Israel

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

If He had brought us into the land of Israel,

and not built for us the Holy Temple

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

— Dayenu, it would have been enough!

dayeinu!