I ended my most recent post Why Organizations Need a Chief Eleemosynary Officer noting that my next post would be focused on the meaning and celebration of Thanksgiving. When I did that I did not have in mind that I would go so far as to suggest that the way we currently celebrate Thanksgiving may have lost its meaning. Has it become a chronological inconsistency?
This post is appearing more than a month later than I had originally planned. A number of things have contributed to this delay. The most significant of those things included additional medical problems that began the Friday before Thanksgiving and have continued through the present. I can briefly described my medical concerns by saying, “The shocks are back.” I am again experiencing sensations which feel like 120-volt electric shocks in various spots on my body. I will have a more detailed description of what’s going on next calendar year, after all the medical testing is done. I hope that I can whet your appetite for my next post by quoting one doctor in the emergency room that I was forced to visit shortly after Thanksgiving, who said, “You’re the most interesting and complicated patient that I have ever met in an ER.”
Also delaying my post were five blog post announcements that I received during or shortly after the traditional Thanksgiving season. After reading them, I just had to take time to mentally process them. These announcements or blog posts were from five very different sources. However, they all expressed something of a common theme. These emails started me thinking that we may have missed the boat with the way we currently celebrate Thanksgiving.
The first was the Thanksgiving post from Rick Warren, the famous pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, and author of “The Purpose Driven Church” and “The Purpose Driven Life.” Pastor Warren begins his post Quick Study: Be Thankful in Tough Times with Paul’s admonition to the church at Philippi: “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4 KJV). Warren, echoing Paul, encourages Christians to be joyful! We should be joyful, not just in the good times, but always. He outlines a four-part program for a joyful life. 1) Don’t worry about anything: Jesus provides us the first step in the middle of His Sermon on the Mount: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34 KJV); 2) Pray about everything: Paul urged the Christians in Philippi to bring all their concerns to God: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (Phiippians 4:6 KJV); 3) Thank God in all things: The previously mentioned verse reminds us to include thanks in every prayer. However, Paul was even more specific in his instructions to the church in Thessalonica: ” In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (I Thessalonians 5:18 KJV)); 4) Think about the right things: Paul concluded his instructions to the church in Philippi with the following counsel: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8 KJV). Thus Warren’s post reminded me that Thanksgiving is not seasonally dependent. It is a full-time responsibility for every Christian. Worry is a non-starter. We are to think about the good things, but we are to be thankful for everything in our lives, not just the good things. The immediate conclusion: Thanksgiving must not be relegated to one day a year.
The second announcement was for Tara Fall’s Thanksgiving post in her FindingStrengthtToStandAgain’sBlog Overcoming obstacles with Optimism. Tara is a beautiful and mentally tough young woman who can’t remember what she or anyone else looks like. She suffers from prosopagnosia, face blindness., the after effect of a very serious stroke some years ago. Face blindness is a neurological problem in which the individual does not have the ability to recognize or distinguish faces. How would you react to the fact that you could not pick your spouse, parent or child out of a crowd, without hearing them speak? Cheerfulness and optimism are not usually the first two words that come to mind. Please do not get me wrong. Tara is not cheerful because she can’t recognize her husband or children. She is cheerful because she has the opportunity to experience the love and presence of her family. Tara’s Thanksgiving post was entitled “Challenge: Share Your Gratitude.” She began her post referencing Facebook’s MOG-Month of Gratitude. In this new Thanksgiving tradition, Facebook users were to do a daily post for thirty straight days sharing something about which they should be grateful. Since I am not on Facebook, I was not aware of their proposal for this new custom. I have no idea how many Facebook users participated. My hat’s off to those who did. For those of us not adventurous enough, or who for other reasons chose not to participate in Facebook, Tara had another challenge for us. She asked us to think of a few people who touched our lives in some way and to write them a hand written note of gratitude. I close this section of my post with Tara’s own words, because she says it best: “I’m asking you, challenging you, to contact someone who has touched your life. Say thank you. Expressing gratitude and impacting lives should not be restricted only to the thirty days in November.”
The third is the Thanksgiving post of Linda McDaniel Smith in her blog “TheVillageSmith” entitled The Miracle of Squanto; God Moves in Mysterious Ways. Linda is a Christian blogger who writes about books, movies, life in general and her life in particular, and God’s interactions with this world and its people. If you enjoy down home writing about real people, you would enjoy reading TheVillageSmith. In Linda’s Thanksgiving post, she introduces us to Squanto, a little known hero in the story of the Pilgrim founding of the Plymouth colony. She begins her post by quoting a Wall Street Journal oped piece by Eric Metaxas, the New York Times #1 bestselling author of Bonhoeffer, Miracles,Seven Women, Seven Men, and Amazing Grace.
“His [Squanto] story is astonishing, even raising profound questions about God’s role in American history”.
Squanto is credited with saving the Pilgrims from starvation and freezing. Can you imagine their surprise when this young, native American came walking out of the forest near the Plymouth colony and introduced himself in perfect English? He went on to teach the Pilgrims how to plant corn and how to survive the harsh New England winters. He was also instrumental in arranging a peace treaty between the English and the Native Americans. How did he know the English language? By 1619, he had already crossed the Atlantic four times. He, along with four other Native Americans, were captured by the English explorer George Weymouth in 1605. They were taken to England, where they were taught English and became a sensation among London’s society. He returned to his native land, only to be captured by another English excursion, taken to Spain, where he was sold into slavery. He was helped to escape by Franciscan Monks. He learned about Christ from the Franciscans and became a Christian. He again returned to American in time to greet the pilgrims. Linda closes her post with the following Thanksgiving greeting:
Happy Thanksgiving. God raised up a native man out of the wilderness, educated him, sent him across the world, and brought him back for His purpose. Sadly, Squanto lost his people, but gained a nation, America.
In spite of the injustices done to him, Squanto helped the English settlers survive and thrive in his land. He had a thankful heart, because through them he found the one true God. He no longer had to live out his name, which meant “Wrath of God.”
The fourth Thanksgiving post, How to Be Thankful For Your Life by Changing Just One Word, was from James Clear, one of the world’s foremost experts on habits. James begins his short post by asking readers to think about all the things they have to do. What do you have to do today? What do you have to do this week? What do you have to do to get ready for Christmas? James claims that this perspective is all wrong and by changing just one word individuals can reclaim the joy of life. He challenges readers to “imagine changing just one word” in those nagging questions.
You don’t “have” to. You “get” to.
What do you get to do today? What do you get to do this week? What do you get to do to get ready for Christmas? Suddenly tasks are no longer burdens, they are opportunities. James closes his post by reminding us that, “So often, the things we view as work are actually the rewards.” What rewards do you get to reap in the coming days?
The fifth blog post Days of Gratitude was from the Oliver Sacks Foundation announcing a 12 Days of Gratitude campaign honoring the memory of Dr. Oliver Sacks. Dr. Sacks was a world renowned scientist, physician, author and professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine. He was the New York Times Best Selling author of the books Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. The foundation noted that this was “a remarkable year, one of sadness and joy, but above all, thankfulness for Dr. Sacks’s full and remarkable life.” Dr, Sacks last book, Gratitude, was published this November, just months after his death on August 30, 2015. It brought ” together in one volume four gemlike essays written over the last two years of his life and first read by millions worldwide in The New York Times.” These four inspiring essays were written in the final months of his life. In these essays Dr. Sacks reflects on growing old, coming to terms with mortality, and—most importantly—being thankful for the gift of living one’s own life. The Foundation challenges readers to think about the things for which they are grateful and to share those thoughts about life, death and gratitude on the Foundation’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
I challenge my readers to be grateful for what they have and what they get to do. Thanksgiving Day and the month of November and Facebook’s MOG (Month Of Gratitude) is over. However, it is not too late to pick up a pen and paper and write someone in your life a note of gratitude. It’s not too late to thank someone personally for their acts of kindness toward you. It’s not too late to change the title on your TO DO LIST to GET TO DO LIST. I challenge my readers to post something for which they are grateful in the Reply or Comment portion of this blog.
Celebrating Thanksgiving one day a year is not bad. (People who know me, know that I enjoy turkey and stuffing as much, if not more, than the next guy.) However, forgetting about giving Thanks and being grateful the remainder of the year is wrong. Let’s celebrate Thanksgiving all year long! Be ready always with those two magical words, “Thank you.”