"Do not worry about anything, but
in everything by prayer and supplication "Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, |
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| I am waiting to see how the media
addresses Thanksgiving 2008. The election will be
over, we will know who the next president will be,
and we will know how much control his party will have
in Congress to legislate his programs. The wars go on
in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and the media will be sure
to find some bad news on the warfront to highlight
for days leading up to Thanksgiving! It's a safe
assumption that the economy will not make a dramatic
recovery in the next three weeks. We will be hearing
more stories of families evicted and left homeless in
the wake of the mortgage crisis. And in the big
buildup to Black Friday, we will be hearing about how
much less the average family will be spending on
Christmas this year -- spelling gloom and doom for
the major merchandisers. In short, the media will be
feeding us a long litany of stories focusing on how
little we can be thankful for this year. What a shame they don't know our God the way we know him! We know our security, our joy, and our peace are not founded upon who sits in the Oval Office or who controls Congress; or based on the latest Dow Jones Market quotes or predictions of the 2008 Christmas season sales figures. Our faith is not blind faith but faith in the God who has given us Christmas and Easter, given us himself through his own Son Jesus Christ. Our faith is in the God who created the universe to make a home for us. Our faith is in the God who as our Father provides for all of our needs as we lift our needs to him in prayer with genuine thanksgiving. We do not worry because we are somehow blissfully ignorant of the condition of our country and world. We do not worry because we know who is really in charge -- he is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and he can be found both on Wall Street and Main Street. If you share my faith in God our Father, we can join in celebrating this Thanksgiving with all the joy and thankfulness with which we have celebrated past Thanksgivings. Our celebration alone should be a witness to our society that we see and live life with a vastly different understanding than they do. But we have more to our witness than just our expressions of joy. I included the second quote above because in it Paul addresses thankfulness for God's blessings, peace, and comfort as a powerful motivation for us to offer an even stronger witness to our community. As God gives us his peace which surpasses all understanding and consoles us in our afflictions, God is also preparing us for ministry -- especially with those who are also experiencing affliction. As we trust God to provide for our needs, we are set free from worry about ourselves so we can care for the needs of others. We have been given a unique opportunity at a difficult time to reach out to our family, friends, and neighbors who are afraid for the future, whose needs are threatening to swamp them in the present, who are longing for someone to show them some compassion and offer them consolation. Well, Paul writes that God has consoled us in our afflictions, not just for our own blessing but so that we might be enabled to share that consolation in Christ with others. This Thanksgiving season open your ears to listen carefully for familiar voices calling out for help in their anguish. Most of those voices will not broadcast their cries loudly but very softly, ashamed of their own helpless feelings. Open your ears also to hear the voice of God calling you to speak words of hope, of life, of God's peace and consolation. Open your heart to the moving of the Holy Spirit should God call you to respond to some of these needs in a more material way by giving toward Helping Hands or some other local charity which tries to brighten this holiday season for afflicted families. May God indeed bless you and your family this Thanksgiving! |
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Reprinted from the November 2008 Newsletter |
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