Thursday, November 26, 2009

A Life of Thanksgiving Rather Than Just a Day

“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever.”

Those well known words of King David were expressed in a Psalm and described in I Chronicles, as the ancient Israelites placed the Ark of the Covenant – containing God’s glory – in a tent that David had made expressly for that purpose. The people were asked to thank and praise the Lord God regularly and to do so as well with harps, cymbals and trumpets.

Today, in our culture, we set aside a day to be with family where possible and to thank our God for our blessings. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. Kay Lynne and I today wish you a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

There is one word in the chapter mentioned above that stood out to me as I read the passage. The word is “regularly.” It’s wonderful that we give thanks on this day, but how much better it would be if we gave thanks regularly and not just on one day.

I continue to be troubled by the fact that we in America have so much, and people in other areas of the world have little or nothing. As my wife often muses, “why should we be so blessed simply as the result of an accident of where we were born, when others are born in poverty?”


It’s a sobering question for a mostly happy day. We may never have an adequate answer, but we can at least do a little bit to help alleviate the pain in our world. And we can start right here in our neighborhood.

I’ve often seen ministers at this time of year use the sermon title, “Thanksgiving is Thanks Living.” It seems to me that “thanks living” must at least be about helping someone who needs it when we have so much.

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