Are You Thankful?

“Have a Happy Thanksgiving!” I cheerfully wished upon the checkout lady at WalMart, yesterday.

“Umm...yeah…you too.” she answered, seemingly surprised that I would declare such a statement.

I gave her a big smile, hoping to bring a little sunshine into her dreary life, and began pushing my cart towards the exit sign. “Who put a burr under her saddle?” I silently wondered. Has she not one solitary thing to express thankfulness for this weekend? Quite honestly, I felt like stopping right there in the middle of the aisle and making a list of all the things I, as an outsider, could observe that she should be thankful for, but I figured it might appear as being slightly rude if I actually presented her with the list to study. So, I continued on out into the chilly November air instead.

Living in this blessed nation of America, there is one question that never ceases to boggle my mind. “How does a blessed person suddenly become ungrateful?” Consider the following:

--If you woke up this morning with more health than illness…you are more blessed than the six million who will not survive this week.

--If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation…you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

--If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death…you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

--If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep…you are richer than 75% of this world.

--If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace…you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

So how is it that some of us are caught with an unthankful heart? Do we have too many blessings, and are taking them for granted? Oh Lord, help us! We should never become too busy or so insensitive to what we have been blessed with that we overlook them altogether!

The story is told of Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie as they stood in line at a concentration camp. Tired, worn, and striped of their clothes, Corrie leaned over and whispered into her sister’s ear, “They took His clothes, too.” Betsie gasped and replied, “And to think that I’ve never thanked Him for it.”

The first time I heard that account, I immediately took a few moments to send up a prayer of thanksgiving to our Father. He knows our situations; He knows our every thought. There is no place we can go where He has not already been. He is our Father, and wishes to bestow the greatest of love and care upon us. When all else has failed us, we can still offer up thanksgiving for who He is and what He has done.

So, what is thanksgiving, really? Growing up, I had always considered myself to be a thankful person. I was glad for what I had, and it all made me happy. Yet as I matured, I began to sense that true thanksgiving does not merely come from the feeling of being happy to have something. Rather, it comes with the understanding of how precious that something is.

Friends, we must grasp the concept of a thankful heart. Take hold of it like it is going out of style, for sadly, it is.

Anyone can be happy to have a closet full of clothes, money in their wallet, and a car in their garage. But happiness is conditional; it comes and goes. Happiness depends on the circumstance. So if I am to simply remain happy about what I have on this Thanksgiving Day, I’m setting myself up for possible doom tomorrow. I’m giving myself the chance to not be happy tomorrow! True thanksgiving, much like true joy, must stem directly from the understanding of how blessed we really are. Otherwise, it’s just too easy to focus on the not-so-great parts of life. And the Lord knows we all have those hard things to deal with. But let us always remember how he wants to bless us amidst the trial. He seeks to place roses amongst the thorns…to be the Lighthouse in the midst of a storm.

And hey – even if everything looks really gloomy, and you have to resort to sarcastic humor to unveil your thankful spirit, DO IT! We all need to laugh, and lighthearted moments help to break troubled waters.

For example: Last night (thanksgiving eve.) I left church immediately after service due to a nauseous stomach. I had felt sick all day long, and knew it was going to get much worse really soon. Once home, and my body relieved of the “yuckies”, I was just laying down to rest when the phone rang. It was a friend calling to invite me over to his house and watch a movie with a group of people. “Come do something fun!” he begged.

“The only “fun” thing I’ll be doing tonight will be puking in the toilet.” I retorted, feeling miserable for not being able to hang out with them. But then I started thinking that I should really find something to be thankful for, instead of just complaining about my illness, so I came up with this:

“Well, I guess I should be thankful that I won’t be puking in an outhouse tonight, huh? At least I have a nice clean, white, porcelain, toilet boil to take care of business with.” As soon as those words were out of my mouth, I cracked up laughing! Okay, so you had to be there to actually think it was funny…but seriously. Can anyone of us rightfully complain about any situation? Sure, things don’t always go as we would like them to, but there’s always oodles more of things that we can be thankful for and find joy in.

So this Thanksgiving, will your “Happy Thanksgiving-er spirit” be conditional, due only to the people and things you have at the moment? Or will you purpose to find that rose among the thorns and truly be thankful, expressing utter joy, for the blessings you have been given?

As the old song goes, “Count your blessings name them one by one…”

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!