Happy Thanksgiving!
Genuine thanksgiving
has two elements. First, thanksgiving requires expressing gratitude for
something good or beneficial. Thankfulness also requires thanking the giver of
the blessing, gift or goodness. We thank a cook for a delicious meal.
Alternatively, winning the lottery leaves us with no one to thank – unless the
allegedly random outcome was rigged.
This
Thanksgiving, ponder two questions: (1) For what are you thankful? (2) To whom
should you give thanks?
I am
slowly learning to be thankful to myself for much of what I do, feel, and
think. Variously formulated Christian theological doctrines such as original
sin and total depravity wrongly and completely devalue humans. Created by God, each
of is valuable and able to do good things. Low self-esteem and lack of
self-respect are never part of the true humility that includes
self-appreciation for those times when we faithfully walk in Jesus’ footsteps
of sacrificial love.
Concurrently,
I am learning to reject excessive self-reliance and independence in favor of a
healthy, mutual interdependence with family, friends and others. Take Thanksgiving
as an opportunity to habituate intentionally thanking those persons whose love
enriches your life.
Finally,
learn to thank God for life. Life is our real blessing from God, an idea captured
in the classic Jewish toast of Le Chaim (to life). For in life – whether
in the cosmos’ beauty, human creativity, our limited autonomy, or our
self-awareness – we experience an echo or reflection of the divine. We can also
experience God in the Spirit’s gifts of wisdom, strength and courage.
To thank
God for more– such as rain that blesses us but harms others – implies that God
loves us better or more completely than God loves those to whom God has
apparently been less good, less kind. That is patently wrong. God loves all
creation, and God loves all of God's daughters and sons equally.
Comments