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This is the season of giving thanks in American society, with Thanksgiving Day coming up next week. We need to give thanks. It's important for us to give thanks to significant people in our lives. It's also important to give thanks to God for the relationships and experiences that shape our lives. The 14th-century Christian mystic and writer known as Meister Eckhart affirmed this truth: "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." There is much in life
for which to be thankful. When listing areas of gratitude, most of us rightly
include those people we love and the resources that help us to enjoy life. We
are thankful for relationships, health and food, meaningful work, and
opportunities to relax. I am indeed thankful for all these things as
well.
I do wonder,
however, if we are missing the
boat even just a little bit, in our thanksgiving. In many ways, what
have enriched my life most profoundly are the challenging experiences and
difficult people for whom I have very little enthusiasm to give thanks! My
experiences of loss and betrayal have pushed me to grow and become the person I
am. The people for whom I have felt just the opposite of affection have often
shown me most clearly who I am and what I have to offer. And the experiences of
poverty I've come to know teach me where my true abundance lies.
In this season of reflection and
thanksgiving, it is certainly important to give thanks for those wonderful
people, communities, and experiences that warm our lives with heavenly fires* and
illuminate us with the season's light. But let us also give thanks for the
losses, the betrayals, and the failures of our lives. Let us even give a measure
of thanks for the irritating or untenable people whose paths our lives have
crossed and will cross. In mysterious and perhaps mystical ways, they can also
be gifts of God to us. *from Albert h. Thanks for continuing to bless me as
we journey together. Jack F. Price, Senior Pastor
If you haven't read
Jack's book Finding
Faith: Honest Answers about God, the Bible, and the Church Today
order it today: www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com
or directly from
Jack at www.findingfaithnow.com |
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