11-20-01
Thanksgiving Eve Service
Maybe you heard of the identical twins who were really opposites. One had the personality of the eternal optimist. Everything was always working out; it was going to be great. Everything was very hopeful. His brother, however, saw everything in its worst possible light. Worst case scenario. The parents were worried about this. They went to a psychologist and he offered up a simple plan to try to blend the two personalities to achieve a little more balance.
He said that on their next birthday, you give the optimist a box of manure and stick him in one room by himself. To the pessimist, you put him in a room by himself and give him all the best toys and presents you can possibly afford.
So the next birthday rolled around and that is what they did. They peeked in the room. The pessimist looked at his new presents and said, “This computer is too slow. My friends have a faster one. I know this new bike is just going to break. My friends have a remote control car that is better than this one.” Everything was just bad.
They tiptoed across the hallway to the optimist. He was gleefully throwing the manure up in the air and had a big smile on his face. They heard him say, “You can’t fool me. If there is this much manure, I know there has got to be a pony in here somewhere.” It all depends on how we look at things doesn’t it?
The ability to give thanks is a matter of perspective and attitude. Our level of thankfulness is closely tied to how we choose to look at things.
If a person from outer space who had no prior knowledge of our culture was dropped into America three months ago would the word “thankful” have been one of the first adjectives he used in describing us?
If we are honest with ourselves, most of us would admit that “thankful” might not have ranked too high in a list of words an outsider might have chosen when talking about us. We always wanted just a little bit more.
If our jobs were a little different. If our houses looked differently. If our neighborhood was different. If our spouses, if our families, if our careers, if whatever.
It is the athlete who wanted a higher salary or to play for a different team. The child who wanted more toys. Or the teenager who wanted more popularity. The executive who wanted more perks or just the rest of us who wanted more leisure or more pay or just some of the stuff we want that we thought would make us happy.
And so this outsider might logically wonder, do you feel thankful THIS November?
After September eleven, do you feel thankful?
After anthrax attacks, do you feel thankful?
After our legislators, Supreme Court justices, governors, and working men and women from postal employees to hospital workers had to flee their work places because of deadly attacks on this nation, do you feel thankful?
After America’s military personal—our sons and daughters, husbands and wives, moms and dads—once again have been placed in harm’s way, do you feel thankful?
After hearing voices of hate night after night and seeing violent demonstrations in the streets day after day—all directed against the U.S., do you feel thankful?
After canceling long-planned trips, or losing a job because of an economy thrown into recession, or attending memorial services for those who were killed from this outpouring of evil, do you feel thankful?
Do you feel thankful THIS November?
And I believe this November… this Thanksgiving, the overwhelming majority of Americans would respond to those questions with a resounding yes! Yes, we feel very thankful! Perhaps more so than in any other year. Why do you think we feel so thankful after so much trouble? Why are we more grateful after so much has been taken away?
In an article in this week’s issue of TIME magazine, Nancy Gibbs hints at the answer. In pondering the paradoxical nature of Thanksgiving she says…
“It is an ordeal to travel and yet we do; family reunions can be wildly stressful and yet painful to miss…. This is the kind of holiday we need right now, an intrinsically complicated one that comes at the end of a bitter harvest and finds something sweet to celebrate. Everyone is a pilgrim now, stripped down to bare essentials and a single carry-on bag to sustain us in a strange new world.” (Nancy Gibbs, “We Gather Together,” TIME, 11-19-01, p. 29)
Did you catch what she said?
Everyone is a pilgrim now… Stripped down to the bare essentials…to sustain us in a strange new world. I think she means we are collectively evaluating what is foundational in life. We are beginning to realize what is truly important. Instead of focusing on what we don’t have and what we would like to obtain, we are becoming aware of what we already have. And these are the things for which we are thankful.
Really that’s what God has been wanting to teach us through the Bible for centuries.
Stripped down to the bare essentials we still have Jesus.
As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. (2 Peter 1:3, NLT)
Not just some of the things. Not most of the things. Not even all but one thing. No. As we know Jesus better, he gives us everything we need for living the kind of life that pleases God.
Everything we need for a fulfilling life! So as the song said, “How could I ask for more?”
And yet, at times, there seems to be a law of inverse blessing.
The more people have, the less outwardly thankful they can become.
God has given us so many good things that we actually may take some blessings for granted.
Martin Luther wrote, “If in his gifts and benefits (God) were more sparing and close-handed, we should learn to be thankful… The greater God’s gifts and works, the less they are regarded.” (In Table Talk)
In a similar fashion, Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that if the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, imagine what an exciting event that would be. But because they are there every night, we barely give them a look.
I wonder if we started doing that in America. We had so much all the time that missed just how good God is to us on a daily basis.
A native of a third world country, came to the US for the first time, and as he was riding through a subdivision he saw a car backing out of a garage, and he observed out loud, “You all have houses for your cars?”
Yes—you know we don’t always realize how blessed we are, and how affluent our country is.
John Huffman, a pastor from Newport Beach, CA wrote this last year…
If you woke up this morning with more health than illnesses, you’re more blessed than the million who won’t survive this week.
If you own inspirational books, you’re abundantly blessed. One-third of the world doesn’t have access to even one.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you’re more ahead of 500 million people around the world.
If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you’re more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you’re richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you’re among the 8% of the world’s wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married, you’re very rare, even in the United States.
If you hold your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you’re blessed because although the majority can, most do not.
If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them, or even just touch them on the shoulder, you’re blessed, because you can offer God’s healing touch through your caring.
If you prayed yesterday and today, you’re in the minority because you believe in God’s willingness to hear and answer prayer.
If you can read this message, you’re more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read anything at all.
Count your blessings.
(John A. Huffman, Jr., “God’s Promise For When You Are Tempted,” St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, California, 27 August 2000.)
Not until things are taken away do we sometimes begin to appreciate what we already have.
Helen Keller once said, “I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. It would make him more appreciative of sight and the joys of sound.”
A lot was taken from us on September 11. Maybe that is why America seems so thankful this year in spite of recent events. But stripped down to the bare essentials, we still have Jesus. How could we ask for more?
Troubles don’t have to rob us of our gratitude.
Actually troubles can help to make us more thankful.
In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul said…
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength… And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:11-13, 19)
Paul wrote those words from prison at a time when he was held under arrest for spreading the message of Jesus Christ.
Just days ago, the eight Christians being held in Afghanistan were released. It is nothing short of a miracle. This Thanksgiving they have a lot to be thankful for. I saw a clip of Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, the two Americans, speaking at a news conference, it was refreshing to sense their attitude through the whole ordeal.
For months they were content to sit in a prison cell and sing hymns, write worship choruses and share their faith with their captives. Like Paul, there was no hunger for earthly things just gratitude for an opportunity to share the gospel.
Troubles can actually make us more thankful…
I am probably more thankful for more sister now that she has cancer. Faced with the prospect of losing her I think I appreciate her even more.
Many of us are more thankful for the police and for firefighters. We’re possibly even more thankful for our government, our freedom, our armed forces, and our letter carriers. Trouble gives us fresh perspective on what we already have.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 remind us to give thanks in all circumstances!
A piece e-mail making the rounds says:
I’m Thankful For...
the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.
the taxes I pay because it means that I’m employed.
the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
I’m thankful for…
my shadow who watches me work because it means I’m out in the sunshine.
a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.
I’m thankful for…
the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.
my huge heating bill because it means I am warm.
the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means I can hear.
I’m thankful for…
the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.
weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive.
the alarm that goes off in the early morning because it means that I’m alive.
After a time of trouble, the little things become more precious. Perhaps that’s why America seems so thankful this year.
And for the Christian this is especially true. No tragedy, no hardship, no trial, no disaster can take away what God has promised.
Psalm 23:1 – The Lord is my shepherd, (I shall not be in want) I have everything I need. (NLT)
Everything – no other conquests are necessary. No shopping trips required. No further accumulations needed. Each of us can honestly say, “I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.” But the Christian says, “I have everything I need in Jesus Christ, and that can never ever be taken away.”
So this Thanksgiving in the midst of remembering what is important, don’t forget what is most important.
I’m not much of a chess player, but a couple of years ago, when we hosted a coffehouse concert for Dan Gilliam over at Caribou Coffee I played a game of chess against Keith Wagner.
Now I do understand the object of the game: the goal is to get the other person’s king while protecting your own. Good chess players like Keith set up a strategy that enables them to get their hands on the king.
I was cruising along capturing a bunch of insignificant men, accumulating a larger stack of conquests than he had. I think I had about five of his pawns, while he only had a couple of mine. I was feeling pretty secure. But I lost.
A lot of people play chess like that, they try to capture as many pieces as possible. That’s NOT how the game is played! You can capture nearly every piece on your opponent’s side of the board, but if he slips in and captures your King, the game is over.
Too many people play at life the way I play chess. They get so focused on accumulating the things of this world that they take their focus off of their King. Listen to me…it doesn’t matter how much you accumulate in this world, if you lose the King…you’ve lost! (Credit to Dave Stone for the seed thought of this illustration)
