Thank God

“Isn’t God narcissistic? If I don’t praise Him, I go to Hell.”

This is a profanity free summary of a discussion I had with an atheist. I get what he was saying and my Sunday School kid self had the same worry. That is when the holidays came to my rescue.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days because all of Christmas is before me, none spent, and there is no pressure on the day. We feast, rejoice, and prepare to party some more. God bless Thanksgiving. I am thankful for Thanksgiving and the American Christians who created the holiday.

Why?

Being thankful is good for me. I am thankful for my family . . . even if they do not demand it, because it is good for me (and for them!) if I am thankful. In fact, to avoid being a self-centered jerk, thankfulness, deep gratitude, is necessary. Bad bosses say “thank you,” but resent success unless it builds their own reputation. A bad person who is never thankful ends up alone because he only gives himself praise.

This is one way the Christian God is not just a Greek god with more power. He is a very different sort of being. Zeus could do many things and if they were good, then it was appropriate to be grateful . . . though talking to Zeus was never safe. Too much gratitude could get his attention and depending on his mood, that could be deadly. The Christian God is all-everything: He sustains being. He is the reason that everything exists and keeps on existing. All that is subsists in Him.

He has allowed freedom in the workings of the cosmos, but nothing good would be possible if He did not exist. Evil need not exist, the good did not have to be twisted, broken, or scarred, but the good must be or nothing would be. Existence is a good thing and it subsists in God.

God is due praise as a result, but He does not need our praise. We don’t give Him self-esteem, He knows Who He Is: the I AM.

God is due praise, but We don’t cheer Him up by our praise. We don’t provide the source of Joy anything more than He has. Of His own, we give Him.

He demands our praise because if we are not thankful, we become narrow, crabby, small people. Ingratitude wears at us and makes us ugly. The ungrateful man becomes incapable of joy because gratitude is a prerequisite of joy. Everyone knows this truth. If I am not thankful to my family, even if they do not ask for it, demand it, and are so self-assured that they do not need it, then I am less than I should be. I am small.

If our ingratitude for the good done to us on the job, in our family, or in our nation harms us, how much more does our denial of the due praise to God harm us? We cannot be happy without gratitude and the ground of happiness is God. I am thankful to God for my daily bread, even though He let me have a part in getting that bread to the table. Why? Without God, the goodness of bread would not be good. The joy of the meal would be gone. Bread and board would be gone.

The man who takes beauty for granted will lose beauty. The man who takes joy as a given will soon be bored. God is all Beauty and all Joy.

Thank God for God.