A SCARCITY OF THANKFULNESS?

The Thanksgiving holiday will be celebrated in many households throughout the United States in just a few days. Family and friends, young and old, from nearby and far away, people will gather together. There will be turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Some of us will not be able to resist the urge to eat far more in one day than we than we typically consume. In the “average” household in this nation, there will be no scarcity of good food, but I wonder – will there be a scarcity of thankfulness?

The reason I wonder about this is that I find that I have a great tendency to take for granted the over-abundance of blessings in my life. I confess – I take far too many things for granted, seldom expressing and too often not even feeling an attitude of thankfulness. I am this way even though the clear instruction of God is that I am to be thankful rather than thankless.

His word tells me that I am to be thankful in all circumstances, and for everything. (1Thes 5:18) (Eph 5:20)

I am taught that my prayers to God are to be presented with thanksgiving, (Phil 4:6) and that I am to be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful. (Col 4:2)

Colossians 2:6-7 shows me that as I continue to live my life in Christ, I am to be rooted in Him, and I am to be overflowing with thankfulness.

It’s crystal clear that my life should not be characterized by thanklessness. I suppose that it could be that I am the only one in whom there is a scarcity of thankfulness, but I think not. Some of you reading these words can relate, right? So what are we to do?

Certainly we must pay much greater attention to the word of God, as it is very evident that God expects us to be thankful. Additionally, from an “every day” perspective – not just on Thanksgiving day - here are some things we can do:

Can you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell? Is your heart beating and are you breathing? Give thanks to God, for He is the one who created you.

Are there people in your life who love you, support you, encourage you, help you, challenge you, or contribute to your life in any way? Give thanks to God for them and say “thank you” to them.

Is there a circumstance in your life that is testing you? This is a tough one, but here again, we are to give thanks. See 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

Friends, I encourage you to examine your life for evidence of thanklessness. if you find such evidence in your life, as I find in mine – resolve to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness. That is what God wants of us.

May it be so...

In Christ –

John

Soli Deo Gloria

The Truth Process, Session VII, Post 9

TIME

EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS of collective life experience.

There were fourteen of us gathered in the room at an Italian restaurant in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, all of us members of the Baldwin High School class of 1968 – all of us having crossed the threshold of 60.  Fourteen people with six decades of living behind us – eight hundred and forty years of collective life experience.

I can only imagine what would happen if we had the time, and the necessary courage to share collectively what life has taught us. I don’t mean the small and sometimes obvious lessons that we learn along the way – such as “it’s not a good idea to put an M80 firecracker in a toad’s mouth.”  (Yes, one of our classmates actually did that. The culprit shall remain nameless.¹) I mean the larger more important lessons about living – the lessons that address how, when, and perhaps most importantly – why.

Due to the gap in my relationship with these people – in most cases close to forty years – I am not aware of much of what has happened in their lives between the ages of 18 and 60. Each time we get together I pick up a little more information about some of them.

As one would expect of a group of people of similar age, there are certain commonalities. There are several with grandchildren, and it seems that the grandparents all speak in the same loving and adoring tones about these little ones that they “spoil, then give back.” A few speak of adult children who continue to worry and frustrate them because of the poor choices those children, or others in their child’s lives, have made, Of course there are the ubiquitous comments about failing memory, aging bodies, and gray hair. Life being what it is, I am certain that although unspoken, there are other commonalities in the experiences of physical, relational, and emotional pain in the challenges that life in a fallen world inevitably brings. Jesus did say that “in this world, you will have trouble.”

One of our classmates turned 60 about a week before our gathering, and one member of our group, whom she has known since age four, thoughtfully turned the event into a birthday celebration for her. (Interestingly, this thoughtful classmate is the same one who blew up the frog.) The “birthday girl” is a determined, intelligent, capable woman, and she celebrated her 60^th birthday while dealing with one of the most challenging examples of the kind of trouble this world can bring – that trouble is named “breast cancer”.

The average life expectancy of a 60 year old man is less than 20 years. For a woman it is a little over 23 years. The reality and the implications of these facts sober me, for I know how fast the last 20 years of my life have passed by. I also am acutely aware of how time seems to move faster as I age. The Bible speaks of our lives as “a mist that appears for a little while, and then vanishes”.(James 4:14) Psalm 90 advises us to “number our days aright” – and I am reminded that we tend to number or count the things we value. (Psalm 90:12) Ephesians 5 offers great insight, instructing us to “be careful how you walk (carrying double meaning for ‘seasoned citizens’) making the most of your time.” (Ephesians 5:14-17)

This perspective requires that we be looking forward, rather than backward. The past is just that – the past. God has taught me that it’s Important to remember history – my own, as well as that of our nation, and most critically His Story, which stretches back into eternity.  My focus however, must be on the present. The statistics may tell me that my life expectancy is about 19 more years, but the statistics offer no guarantee. God’s word tells me that I am to be making the most of my time, wisely understanding what the will of the God is.

During the evening with my high school classmates, there came a moment when I knew that I was making the most of my time by being there at the Italian Oven in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. That moment came when a few of us gathered in a corner of the restaurant and prayed with the “birthday girl”. We lifted her before the Lord, and asked for her to be granted courage, peace, strength, and healing. Our prayer reminded her that God is sovereign and in control – of everything, which of course includes her life. We acknowledged that each of us is mortal, and dependent upon Him. I believe that her heart was encouraged by our time of prayer, and I know that I was making the most of my time on that Monday evening in November, 2010.²

In Christ –

John

¹She was guilt-ridden for years over this, confessing it twice to two different priests. I think that “coming clean” in front of the group made her feel better.

I continue to pray for my classmate, and I ask that each of you who reads this do so as well.

The Truth Process, Session VII, Post 8

CHAOS

In 1972, fresh out of college, I started my first “real” job as a Health and Physical Education teacher and football coach at a high school in Beaver County. Those of you who are old enough to remember the 70’s will recall that this was a time of social turmoil, as the cultural shift in values that began in the 60’s was beginning to bring forth it’s fruit, and it was a bitter fruit indeed.

Even in this relatively small high school, made up of a combination of suburban, rural, and farm-family students, the cultural shift was evident. Some of the male students sported the “hippie” look – long hair, the occasional earring, thin, scraggly mustaches, and a sloppy, sometimes dirty manner of dress.  More than a few of these students were suspected of drug use, and at times their behavior justified the suspicion. The females had their own assortment of “hippie types”, suspected drug users, as well as those who had been captivated by the women’s liberation movement.

I was coming into this environment as an addition to the Boys Health and Physical Education Department, in anticipation of the opening of a new high school the following year. When I arrived, I was shocked at what I found…

The existing P.E. teacher had lost control. Students openly refused to obey his instructions, consistently came to class late, if at all, and spoke to him in a very disrespectful manner, sometimes referring to him as “old man”. Swearing was not at all uncommon among these boys, and the dreaded “F’” bomb was not off limits. There was no order. In a word, it was “CHAOS”.

I was unsaved in 1972, and the combination of little patience (for anyone and anything that was not the way I thought it should be), a quick temper, and a huge amount of pride drove me to restore order. What I did in the process back then would have cost me my job if done as a teacher today. God, in His grace saved me from myself – another story for another day.

A lack of order eventually descends into chaos. The lack of moral order in our culture has descended into a form of chaos, and here in the United States, the evidence is all around us – the out of wedlock birth rate among blacks is 72%, the divorce rate continues to hover around 50%, homosexuality is openly defended and promoted, many churches no longer preach the word of God and adopt the standards of the culture, partially born babies are aborted in a most gruesome manner. On any given day, our newspapers read of murders, rape, random shootings…

In 1993, Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan published one of the most important pieces of social theory entitled "Defining Deviancy Down." Moynihan started from Emile Durkheim's proposition that there is a limit to the amount of deviant behavior any community can "afford to recognize" (called the "Durkheim Constant"). As the amount of deviancy increases, the community has to adjust its standards so that conduct once thought deviant is no longer deemed so. Consequently, if we are not vigilant about enforcing them, our standards would be constantly devolving in order to normalize rampant deviancy.¹ This seems to be the trend within our nation, does it not?

The chaotic environment of my teaching assignment in 1972 was the result of the combination of cultural influences and a denial of authority. On a much larger scale, these same factors are at work in our country today – a denial of the ultimate authority – God, and the inevitable downward shift in cultural values.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get a bit discouraged about the state of affairs here in the United States of America. Sometimes I wonder if there is any hope at all! But the word of God reminds me that I must put my hope in God – the infinite, eternal, unchanging, all powerful God (Psalm 42:5).

The cure for the chaos that besets our nation is not found in political parties or charismatic, eloquent leaders. Any man-centric solution may appear to bring order, but it will be short lived and before we know it, chaos reigns once again. The cure is found in God and Him alone, and it is in Him we must place our hope.

May it be so…

In Christ –

John

¹Meta Filter Community Web Log, June 16, 2004