Thanksgiving

Bing a pastor, I have to seasonaly submit letters for our church's newsletters. I wrote one for Thanksgiving but I am not sure if it is appropriate. I believe the expectation is some churchy feel good greeting but that is not me at all. Do you think I should submit this? I wrote it last night:

I have really been thinking about ‘thanks giving’ these days. Here is where I am in the thought process – hold on for the ride.

If we are led to give thanks, either by force of the holiday dedicated to this action, or because something inside us compels us to be thankful, for whatever reason, this must imply that we have received something, does it not? Let’s say that this is true. Could we say that a person who finds it hard to be thankful has received little? I don’t think so. Rather, I think the problem that ungrateful people possess is not that they have been given little, but that they really don’t know how to receive. Take my family for example. We find ourselves often at the receiving end of the SAC church family’s generosity. This is a hard thing for me personally. I feel that if I receive a gift from someone, I am acknowledging that I have a need, and my pride tells me that I should be able to provide for my needs myself. My pride tells me I don’t need anything and anybody. But when I am able to acknowledge that I do have needs, that I need other people, that I need Jesus, I am truly grateful when those needs are met. On the other hand, I fall into the trap of feeling I deserve everything I receive. That if I receive a gift from someone, I rationalize, for whatever reason, that I deserve that gift. I cannot be thankful with this attitude.

I had to hash through this idea because so often I am faced with the question: “what are you really thankful for” and I struggle to give an answer. This bugged me and I had to ask why. I think pride and the feeling that I am deserving never get in the way. How terrible to approach the gift of salvation this way, or the gift of breath, or the gift of beauty, or the gift of a wife and two children. I want to be grateful for all that and more. And when I am not, I have to ask why.

If you are feeling the pressure to be thankful, and are finding it hard, take a look around you. Look at your family, your friends, your house, your car, your food, your pay check and receive these gifts with humility. Receive gifts knowing you do have needs that people can meet. That it’s not because you earned it or deserved it but that it is exactly what we have been talking about – a gift.

“So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” James 1:16-17 MSG