The Challenge of Thanksgiving

Since my recent blogs have focused on the topic of thanksgiving it seems reasonable to continue in the same vein for at least a few more days.

Is that not how we so often think about these matters. We tend to compartmentalize things into neat little categories. Thanksgiving becomes a holiday to be observed not an spiritual discipline to be nurtured. Worship becomes a service we attend on Sunday not the overflow of a God-centered life.

Let's face it, it really isn't all that hard to muster the strength to mutter a few words of gratitude during a Thanksgiving eve service at church. Nor is it very exhausting to express appreciation just before plunging our forks into the turkey on Thursday.

The difficulty arises in the "day to day" of life. When fuel costs skyrocket and income plummets. When the physician prefaces his comments with "I'm sorry..." When service is neither noticed nor appreciated. The list could go swell to create a volume but these are enough to communicate the idea. Obeying the command of Scripture to give thanks in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18) is terribly difficult.

In his commentary on the Thessalonian Epistles, Donald Grey Barnhouse wrote "How well we thank God in everything is one of the factors that measure how much we have grown in Christ." I would sound a hearty "amen" and add that it is also an indicator of just how God-centered we really are.

May we truly have a God-centered thanksgiving and a God-centered year.