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{"id":6119,"date":"2014-11-27T06:35:29","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T13:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?p=6119"},"modified":"2014-11-27T07:59:19","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T14:59:19","slug":"on-thanksgiving-and-saying-youre-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2014\/11\/on-thanksgiving-and-saying-youre-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"On Thanksgiving and Saying “You’re Welcome”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"a-new-england-thanksgiving\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

This blog is an edited repost from a couple years past. Happy Thanksgiving 2014, everyone.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Thanksgiving day, and we\u2019re all gearing up for Black Friday. \u00a0Let\u2019s pause and think. \u00a0Is something wrong with that sentence?<\/p>\n

This is not the way I remember it. \u00a0Growing up in New England, Thanksgiving was a big deal. \u00a0My family would travel to be with extended family in Massachusetts and Maine. \u00a0We got out of school early due to the much-cherished \u201chalf day.\u201d \u00a0Then we drove and drove. \u00a0It\u2019s funny what you remember as a kid. \u00a0The tightly packed car, cold feet, brief gas station stops, incessant reading with a booklight (I read for hours and hours and hours), and then actually arriving at the destination. \u00a0Tired but excited. \u00a0Family all around. \u00a0Anticipation of being together the next day.<\/p>\n

What do we look forward to now? \u00a0Shopping. \u00a0Are you kidding me? If the\u00a0focus of a family in Thanksgiving Week is getting up early enough to buy stuff, and not to thank the Lord for his bountiful kindness, something seems fundamentally askew to me. \u00a0We\u2019ve missed the mark somewhere.<\/p>\n

The sweetest things in life are restorative and others-centered. \u00a0Thanksgiving exemplifies this. \u00a0It is a common grace moment to remember God\u2019s special grace. \u00a0It is about, fundamentally, the Lord. \u00a0It is a day set aside for him. \u00a0It is a day\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0to integrate, to engage, if we can help it. \u00a0It is a day to rest and be with loved ones. \u00a0It should be pervaded by a sense that we deserve nothing. \u00a0God deserves everything. \u00a0And yet the mystery before us: we have so much. \u00a0We have so much more than we could ever want or think. \u00a0This is because of God and his grace shed abroad in Jesus Christ. \u00a0This is, therefore, his day.<\/p>\n

Today, engage in the liturgy of gratitude. Think on the kindness of our king, and give thanks to God. Live with thankfulness borne of\u00a0of the eternal kindness\u00a0he has shown us in Christ. Thanksgiving\u2013the act, the liturgy\u2013is not only good, but good for us. It takes us out of ourselves and situates us in right thinking toward God. It reminds us that we are like the Pilgrims who first came to America. We are refugees making our way to a greater country. We have a home, but it is a temporary one.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Pilgrims, do something old-fashioned:\u00a0read about the Pilgrims<\/a>\u00a0(good book for families here<\/a>). \u00a0Read about how they gave thanks to God. \u00a0Celebrate them and their legacy with your family. \u00a0Don\u2019t make them sound weird or silly or awful. \u00a0Be thankful to God for them. Be old-fashioned. \u00a0Be weird. Be traditional. If possible, set aside some time to rest and pray and enjoy and eat. \u00a0This is a day of thankfulness. \u00a0Narcissism and entitlement has no place here. \u00a0The Pilgrims were not celebrating their worthiness in\u00a0making it<\/em>\u00a0over here. \u00a0They were setting their hearts like a tractor beam on God and his goodness. \u00a0So should we.<\/p>\n

I close with a verse from the old King James :<\/p>\n

The LORD hath done great things for us;\u00a0whereof\u00a0we are glad<\/em>\u00a0(Psalm 126:3).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"