1 John 2:12-14
It is Thanksgiving weekend. Many of you will gather with loved ones or friends for a meal. The turkey population has suffered a dramatic decrease over the past few weeks as they migrated from fields to freezers. We’ll eat, drink, go to sleep and maybe see some folks we haven’t seen for a while. Maybe we will go around the table and share one thing for which we’re thankful this year. Then it’s back to work on Tuesday. Is Thanksgiving nothing more than a holiday to get caught up on sleep? Or might it be something more? When Thanksgiving comes, I think we face a challenge living in an urban area. Most of us do not depend on a good harvest for our livelihood. We have not borne the stress of the past few months where we hoped the crop planted in the spring would result in a bountiful harvest in the late summer. Not many of us faced a hungry winter if we didn’t have a good harvest.
But imagine living 70, 100 or 200 years ago. It required faith and letting go of control when your family’s survival depended on getting rain and sun while hoping for no hail or crop failure. So if you completed those 4-5 months with a good harvest you had great motivation for thanksgiving.
Yet for us it’s different. Thanksgiving can come and go with barely a blip on our life radar. But is that the best use of Thanksgiving? Is that the most we can do with the blessings we have been given?
What about God who ultimately gives all our blessings? Does He just want us to sit around a table and give thanks to Him once in a while before we get back to our very busy and important lives? Or might He desire us to go beyond thankfulness? Might He want us to use what He’s given for His purposes in our lives, other’s lives and into eternity? The answer is a resounding YES!
