Thanksgiving Thankfulness

Matt Lauer got me thinking. You know... Matt Lauer on NBC. A few mornings ago I heard him report that people were preparing for Thanksgiving but they didn't have much to be thankful for. "Oh really?" I thought. We -- being the American people -- have nothing to be thankful for? Let's consider...

Yes, the economy has tanked, lots of people are out of work, banks and businesses are going bust, people are losing their stock market-invested retirements, their homes are being foreclosed on, and the immediate future looks more sour than sunny. Yes, these are bad things. And especially bad if you are one of the people directly effected. I'm not minimizing the personal impact. But let's look for something to be thankful for -- bad sentence, try again. Let's look for something for which to be thankful.

1) We don't live in Haiti. Devastated by a series of hurricanes the island nation is barely recovering. Just a couple months ago, people were still living outdoors or on the roofs of their houses because of the depth of mud brought in by floods. Food is scarce. Josette Sheeran, head of the World Food Programme said, "the misery index is rising daily and this will require a massive effort to help people stave off hunger and save lives."

2) We don't live in particular countries and in certain parts of other countries where people are being killed because they dare to be Christians. As examples: India, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, and the list goes on and on. Freedom of religion is even suppressed in parts of Mexico.

3) Be thankful you don't live in the Democratic Republic of Congo where rebel fighting has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and killed many innocent people.

4) Be thankful you DO live in the USA. We just elected a new president (whether he is your choice or not) without any shots being fired or anyone losing his life.

5) Be thankful you can worship -- or not worship -- any way you choose.

6) Be thankful you have something to eat. Consider: 923 million people across the world are hungry. Are you? Everyday, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes -- one every 5 seconds. Any of them yours? (I'm eating peanuts while I write this).

7) I'm guessing you have a car to drive -- even if fuel was -- WAS -- over $4.00 per gallon. Be thankful for that old clunker. (I saw gas for less than $2.00/gallon today. Never thought I'd see that again in my lifetime).

8) And you probably have someplace to live. I know there are homeless people right in the community where you live. As a side note, we attended worship at Emmaus Community Church in Salem, Oregon today. It is a Free Methodist church plant. It's not very large yet but one of their ministries is feeding the homeless in a nearby park. Be thankful you either have a home or have someone who makes food available to you.

9) Be thankful for friends and family and health. Yes, you DO have these. Even if it's not many or not much, it's a blessing and it's more than many in the world have. Take health for example. Even if yours isn't very good, your "poor" health would be much more miserable and possibility fatal by now if you lived in many places in the world.

10) You have a computer so you can read this blog -- and do all those other wonderful computer things. Isn't that something to be thankful for?

Please understand... I don't mean we should simply be grateful we are who we are and live where we live. If we stop there we are not much better than the man Jesus spoke of who said, "Thank God I'm not like this other man" (he was not on Jesus' good-guy list). So here is one more thing to be thankful for. Be thankful you have the capacity and the means to do something kind for someone else. You can get very involved to help end world hunger (at one extreme) or you can simply bless someone else with a smile, gift, or deed.

You do have something -- many things to be thankful for. There is a hymn that we used to sing around thanksgiving time. It has this line, "count your many blessings; name them one by one." I dare you to try. I don't think you can list all your blessings. Even you are in Matt Lauer's focus group. It comes down to this: be thankful this thanksgiving; you have lots of blessings to count -- whoever you are. (take the poll on the right -- let's see how it turns out).

Right now I'm thankful we are in Salem at Ginger's house. I have a MEG Board meeting Tuesday, Joyce and I will help in the Conference office Monday (and Joyce on Tuesday), then we'll spend Thanksgiving day with Ginger.

Here's one more blessing for you count: I care about you.