Pastor’s Blog – November 2011

In previous years and articles, I have confessed ambivalent feelings towards certain yearly holidays and observances. Thanksgiving is one of those holidays. Now, Lord knows that any observance that will make us stop and spend time at table with our family is a good thing! In a world that pulls and pushes at the family structure in ways that leave it fragmented at best, maybe the traditional purposes behind Thanksgiving have given way to a new blessing that we need to recognize: it provides an opportunity for us to do what we don’t seem to do very well or often any more. So, as we gather with family and /or friends, let’s remember to be thankful that these opportunities have been established on our calendars, even if the original intents have been long forgotten.

As I read the scriptures, it seems that for the Christian, a day of thanksgiving needs to give way to a life of thanksgiving. Rather than stooping to a day of gluttony and football to express our gratitude, a much more consistent life style of daily gratitude is more likely to produce the salt and light needed and called for. With this in mind, I offer some suggestions on living a thankful life, first offered in a blog by Rev.GaryFurr, pastor of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and shared in an article in the Ethics Daily newsletter I receive each day. Rev. Furr says, “A simple action each day can express, encourage and deepen our sense of gratitude. Something here might help.

• Express appreciation to someone important in your life verbally or with a note..
• Volunteer to help in a ministry to those less fortunate. It’s as easy as calling your church office, local service organization or other place of caring and signing up.
• Choose to forgive someone who made you angry in the past and act toward them as though it never happened.
• Sing with some other people, not just your iPod. Sing with a baby if you can.
• Give until it hurts and then give some more until it quits hurting and becomes second nature. Get where you can see somebody else getting help and enjoy it.
• Change the way you talk about your life. Make a list of the negative things you say most often. Can you turn them into positives instead? Reframe them into deeper truth?
• Get to know one person you walk past, see every day, sit near in church, work with or see at the store.
• Laugh, hard, at least once today and remind yourself that you are not the center of the universe. If you need a little help, go to the funny birthday card section at the drugstore, watch children playing together or look at your high school yearbook picture.
• Share time and attention with someone who is suffering, in trouble or who needs you. It will pull you out of yourself quickly.
• Put a dollar in the mission offering of your church for every complaint you make today about your life, the government, Congress, the schools, society, “those people” (whoever they are), your parents, your loved ones or anyone else. At least you can help missionaries.
• Read Philippians 4:6. When you start worrying about something today, turn it into a verbal prayer.
• Give out 10 affirmations today. Don’t go to bed with one or two still in your mouth unoffered.

We all know that Rev. Furr’s list is really endless. The important thing is that it has a beginning, and that is a great place to start. Has our country ever been more in need of thankful hearts? With the increasing negativity engulfing our culture, what a breath of fresh air a thankful Christian witness can provide! During this season of harvest, as we “gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing,” may our grateful hearts bear witness to the blessings that have been and continue to be ours, not just for a day or a season, but through each day, season, and life.

Yours for Intentional Thanksgiving,

Pastor John                                                                   11.2011