Title: Abounding In Thanksgiving

Date: 2009-11-22

Reference: I Chron. 29: 10-13 and Col. 2: 6-7

Only 26 more days ‘til Christmas. Looking and listening to the sights and sounds around us, it seems the Christmas Season is already upon us. This last Thursday, a full week before Thanksgiving I arrived at the place our Lions Club meets. They were already putting up Christmas decorations and transforming the Motel Lobby into a Winter Wonderland. I mentioned to our waiter that it was a bit early and he said: “It’s what people want.” In the mail that same day was the very first Christmas Card. One of my constant complaints each year is this...”In our mad rush toward Christmas, many will completely miss the joy of Thanksgiving.”

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving is so important because it is so easy for us to take the blessings of life for granted. We accept so many good things without stopping to acknowledge them, let alone to thank God or others for them. When difficulties present themselves, as they do from time to time, we aren’t above asking why. Why did this happen to me? Why did it happen to someone I love? What did I do to deserve this? We very seldom ask those questions when we are experiencing life’s blessings. We somehow assume we are deserving of the best life has to offer. And we often forget to thank God and others for them.

We are a blessed people. We are not always a thankful people, but we are a fortunate people. God speaking through the Prophet Ezekiel said to His people...”In addition to your other faults, you are thankless.”

This Thanksgiving Season, we would do well to ask God to pardon our Thanklessness and help us to be truly grateful..not only in our hearts but also with our prayers and actions.

Don’t let an ungrateful spirit rob you of life’s true riches. Take time to Thank God daily for who God is and for what God has done and continues to do. This year and always allow an attitude of gratitude to grow strong in your life.

Awake each day with gratitude to God for a new day of life. And close every day with a prayer of gratitude to God for the day you just lived. One of my very favorite Thanksgiving Quotes comes from The Native American Leader Tecumseh who said: “When you arise in the morning give thanks for the morning light for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself.” No matter what circumstances we face we can find a reason to be thankful. May gratitude blossom in life, wherever we find ourselves planted.

If I have trouble understanding anything it’s ingratitude. This week we gather around our tables to give thanks for families, friends, homes, food, country, freedom and so much more. We have much to be thankful for. We must never forget the blessings our forefathers won for us and young Americans are fighting to protect today. So many blessings flow into our lives each day and we like spoiled children take them for granted.

I know this is a difficult year for many. The economy just doesn’t want to turn. Times are hard. There is still much to be grateful for in this wonderful country of ours.

I am thankful we Americans have been so blessed and have always been so willing to share our blessings with others in the world around us. Thanksgiving is a lifestyle, an attitude of heart. True Thanksgiving should not be dependent upon things going our way.

In the 3rd chapter of Habakkuk, the prophet was attempting to describe true Thanksgiving. Times were hard in Israel as they are hard for us in America today. Habakkuk said: “A thankful spirit is independent of prosperity.” He wrote: “Even if the fig trees no longer bloom or the vineyards fail to produce grapes or if the olive trees are fruitless and harvest time is a failure. Even if the sheep pens are empty and the cattle stalls vacant, I will still give Thanks because the Lord God love me and saves me.”

For the person of faith gratitude and joy do not always depend upon affluence. The poorest individual materially, is often the most grateful person among us. Gratitude wells up from within and is based on what God continues to do for us. We are grateful because our Gracious God loves us, not because of who we are, but because of who God is. We are accepted by God not because of our merit but because of God’s Grace.

Thanksgiving and true happiness should come as a result of knowing our wonderful God and not as a result of receiving, collecting, hoarding, or owning. I sometimes think I would be happier if I could simplify my life rather than accumulating more. If we are not careful our possessions end up possessing us. We Christians, especially, have always been rich in the things money cannot buy.

I will have no trouble listing the many things for which I am thankful for this year. America, our beautiful state, our wonderful church family. my loved ones, my home, food, on and on the blessings come.

I also know it’s very easy to take our blessings for granted as well. It is sometimes easier to develop a list of those things we wish we had than to thank God for what we do have.

Our gratitude is superficial and conditional, if we count our blessings only when things are going well. A legend from Eastern Europe tells how poor harvests troubled an area for years. The villagers prayed for sun and rain at times when they desired it. God granted their wish and never did the corn grow so tall or the wheat so think. As the harvest approached their joy turned to sadness, shock, and dismay. The stalks had no corn, the wheat no grain, the trees no fruit. They cried out: “God you’ve failed us.” God responded, “No I gave you all you asked for sunshine and gentle rain.” “Why isn’t there any fruit” They demanded?” “Because” , responded the Lord, “you didn’t ask for the harsh North Wind without which there is no pollination.

A truly thankful person is not easily discouraged. The truly grateful person can live life on what is left. I don’t think life’s losses cripple us so much as our failure to appreciate the good gifts we still have. If we dwell on our losses, despair will shrivel our spirit. I’ve never met a sour, complaining, unhappy, grateful person. A thankful person is one who can endure the most difficult situation in life and still find some joy. The Pilgrim Fathers and Mother felt the need to express gratitude for life after a year of difficulty in America. At their Thanksgiving meals they placed five kernels of corn on each empty plate before their meal was served. These five kernels reminded them that prior to the first Harvest things were so desperate the daily ration for each person was five kernels of corn.

Our early national leaders understood how forgetfulness and prosperity sometimes go hand in hand. President George Washington recognized a day of Thanksgiving after the formation of a new nation. President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as an annual observance. In the midst of a terrible Civil War Lincoln wrote: “We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no nation ever has. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, multiplied us and enriched us. We have vainly imagined that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom or virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace. We have become too proud to pray to the God who made us.”

What was true then is certainly true today. Being thankless reminds me of a visiting farmer who stopped off at a city diner to eat a meal When his food arrived he bowed his head and gave thanks to God. Some rough young men sitting nearby noticed the farmer’s prayer and call out..”Back where you’re from does everyone pray before they eat?” The laughter was silenced when the farmer responded..”Everyone but the pigs.”

We have been so blessed. It is human nature. Give a person enough and somehow he or she will come to believe he is entitled. She will forget the cost and they will be unwilling to pay the price. And enough is never enough.

On the other hand, a truly grateful person continually tries to give back. To give back to family, to friends, to the church, to the community and nation. If you believe life owes you, you have really missed the point.

Many spend their days seeking to acquire things so they might enjoy life. They have it backwards. God gives us the gift of life so we might enjoy all things. Ingratitude is a mean miserable way to spend life.

Life is God’s gift to us. The people in our lives are gifts from God. We should never take either for granted. Thanksgiving is looking back in gratitude and looking forward with anticipation. Both has God at the center, for the grace of God is the basis of our Thanksgiving. In the next few days, let’s pause and give Thanks