Happy Thanksgiving

As we sit down and eat, eat, eat, it’s nice to remember God in the equation.  To thank God.  And to thank that oft spoken about cloud of witnesses.  In this case, the pilgrims.  Much maligned by anti-Christian, anti-Western folks, the pilgrims still hold a place in my heart.  Their courage.  Their dogged devotion to the faith.  They didn’t sit at a keyboard and proclaim their righteousness based on how willing they were to tolerate the deaths of others.  Nor did they demonstrate their devotion by pointing out how the Faith would be better if everyone else was as awesome as they were.  They actually lived the life.  They weren’t the modern John Lennon liberals, who croon about how they’re all for no possessions from their sprawling multi-million dollar estates.  They did something almost as alien in our day and age as common sense and common values: They actually did something.

Praise God for those in our society who aren’t part of the popular, post-Christian, modernist narrative, who actually do.  Who actually step out and put their ideals where their mouths are, and don’t think that asking people to lead by example is a straw man.  Perhaps that, more than anything, is why moderns really try to dismantle the pilgrim legacy, just like they seem to want to dismantle all of the heroes of old.  Heroes, after all, are inspiring to those who want to do something.  Their are intimidating as hell to those who only want to sit in the bleachers and complain about those losers playing on the field.

So trying to take a bit of inspiration from the pilgrims myself, I say well done pilgrims.  Thanks for the witness.  For the Christian element you brought to a merely economic and political venture.  For leaving us a legacy of what devotion is really all about.  And thank you God that you still find it in your heart to give each generation heroes we can turn to, rather than be stuck with those who can only talk their talk.

Happy Thanksgiving pilgrims.  Your first may have not been a major deal to you, but what it stands for is worth more than oxygen to a generation that needs your example more than ever.