On Giving Thanks

It’s what we do when we’re grateful for plenty of food to eat, for family, for faith in God, for an education, for the means to make a living, for a satisfying workplace with supportive colleagues, for health, for friends, for all the “normal” things that we almost take for granted sometimes.

And for sure, we can give thanks for the things that finally occur, when we’ve prayed for them all along sometimes for months or years on end, but how about giving thanks for things we didn’t expect, and for things we don’t really care much about usually? Is there a reason to be thankful for those, too?

What about that shabbily-dressed, scraggly-bearded guy who showed up at church one Sunday? What did he want at our church? Did anybody want to give thanks for his worshiping with us? Hmmm. . . Wait! Is it really your church or “our church”? Or is it God’s church for all God’s people? Maybe we ought to give thanks for such visitors because they might open our hearts to others with life experiences different from ours . . .

And when you misplaced your keys and searched house, car, pockets, washing machine, every place you might have been since last seeing them, did it ever occur to you that you ought to give thanks for the opportunity to test your memory and afterwards create a better routine or at least adhere to the previous one that says you always put your keys down in the same place, never anywhere else?

How about the long wait (past your appointment time) in the doctor’s office? Has it ever occurred to you that you might strike up a conversation there and then with a stranger who could become a new friend and valued listening ear for the next few years of your life? That conversation would never have happened if the doctor had been running on time. . .

The next stranger that enters your life deserves your utmost attention: he or she might be the new caregiver in a nursing home, the new check-out clerk at HEB, the greeter at Walmart, the shopping basket wrangler in the parking lot, the UPS or FedEx driver bringing a package, or the person exiting the tax office as you’re going in. For goodness sake, speak to that person. Say hello, smile, pass on some love.

If what goes around, comes around, and I believe it does, then it’s important for us to start the good going around more than the bad. And that means looking for opportunities to share the good things in life with everyone with whom we share our space on this planet. Gratitude is one of those “good things”.

Your job in life (my job in life, too) is not to criticize everything and find fault with everything. Sure, the service could be better at whatever restaurant, grocery store, government office, or other place we patronize. But it could also be worse.

Be thankful, be positive in your outlook, spread some good vibes, not the bad ones. We’ve got enough people at all levels of our life hierarchy already spreading meanness, anger, and vindictiveness. The only way to break that cycle starts with each of us.

Do your part: make life more pleasant for others by making it more pleasant for yourself. You’ll feel better about yourself and the world if you give thanks for the little encounters, for the interruptions, for the unexpected. Be generous with what you have: time, wealth, possessions, kindness, gratitude. It’s simply God’s work on earth, done through our hearts, our hands.

Happy November, Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends in Christ.