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"On Giving Thanks"


Thanksgiving Is usually one of those ‘easy’ times for me.  It is easy to be thankful living with abundance, in safety, with family and friends – so many things to give thanks for, so many blessings undeserved. Some years and for some people, it is not so. What would Thanksgiving mean to me then? How would I deal with it?

I came across this prayer not long ago ~
          For that which was
          For that which is
          For that which will be
         Thanks be to God

And I began to wonder ~
Is the real meaning behind Thanksgiving not so much the ability to be thankful for those things we have in abundance? After all, that is easy.  But rather to be thankful for everything we have been given or experienced in life, or are now experiencing: the highs and the lows, the mountain-top experiences and the valleys of death, the deserts and the abundant harvests. Not because we are masochists, but because all those things combined together have determined who we are at this moment in time – and God has been present in that transformation and molding of our being: in the words of the doxology, “that power working within us that can do so much more than we can ask for imagine”. That is what I am truly thankful for.

 

As the psalmist says:
Enter God’s gates 
    with thanksgiving
       and the courts with praise.
           Give thanks to God!
                Bless God’s name!




Comments

  1. Terry DranitsarisOctober 9, 2013 at 6:00 PM

    I find myself thankful for many things, not just at Thanksgiving in fact thanking God on a daily basis is what is important to my life. I suppose I could sit down and have a wonderful thanksgiving dinner anytime of the year. I find that I am thankful for the small steps I can make in my day to day life, the gift to be among God's people, to be a part of EfM, to stop and smell the flowers and looking into the sky on a night when the the stars are so bright and the moon is shining in a brighter hue, I thank God for life and birth and rebirth, for His love in allowing me to still be able to some small task to perhaps help others , I thank Our Creator for His son who gave his life for us. Thanksgiving can come in many ways and facets of life. I have so much to be thankful for I can't begin to count them all. Thanksgiving is a nice celebration but it has a much broader meaning to me then having a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It is being with friends and family and thanking God for all he has done for us... I really like this post. Thank you for sharing. And thanks be to God.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lynn EdwardOctober 9, 2013 at 6:54 PM

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Terry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 14, 2013 at 10:39 AM

    Thanks for your post. I think the act of giving thanks is part of the fabric of our life insofar as it is relational in nature. We give thanks to God for life and we thank other people every day in ordinary transactions. Perhaps giving thanks reveals that when all is said and done we are interdependent on each other for life and when we act otherwise we are reflecting arrogance about our place in creation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lynn EdwardOctober 14, 2013 at 2:04 PM

    I like where this thought has taken me. Thank you! Thanksgiving should be about thanking those PEOPLE who have impacted on our lives, not about giving thanks for the THINGS we enjoy. For example, instead of giving thanks for health, we should be saying 'thank you' to the doctor who made it possible. Instead of being focused on the material goods we have, the real focus should be on our need for each other and where that has been met in our lives.

    ReplyDelete

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