Thanksgiving 2021

 

Our last large gathering [pre-COVID] Thanksgiving 2019

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. -- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

Scripture tells us that godliness with contentment is great gain, but being content is not always easy to do        [1 Timothy 6:6].  I dare say that the past two years have only emphasized that point.  I can't recall at any other time in my 61 years on this earth there being a more challenging and difficult period ... realizing that I have never lived through an actual World War or a true civil war.  But for the better part of the past two years we've all been hard pressed really on all sides.  And this is especially true for those of us in the healing professions.

Scores of sick North Floridians line up for COVID testing

Paul said that he learned to be content in whatever state that he found himself [Philippians 4:11].  And Paul didn't just talk about this, he actually showed it to us.  When he was shackled in a Philippian jail did he throw himself a pity party and declare "Woe is me!?"  No!  He and Silas sang praises to their God.  Was this because God had shown them great mercy?  Well, yes [for the salvation of their souls] but no as well, as they had just been flogged and now were sitting alone in prison.  For what?  For speaking the Name ... yes, THAT Name.  We, on the other hand, too often praise God AFTER He has answered our prayers.  And while there is nothing wrong with thanking God for answered prayer, we miss out, I think, if that is the only time we praise Him with Thanksgiving.  God is good [He is actually the definition of Good] and it is impossible for Him to be anything less than good.  It is his nature and character.

Consider Jesus as he stood before Lazarus' tomb.  He looked up at his Father and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me"  [John 11:41].  Isn't it interesting that Jesus actually thanked God for hearing his prayer BEFORE he actually spoke it and before Lazarus emerged from the tomb resurrected from the dead!  God is worthy of praise and we don't have to wait to see if God actually delivers on our request before we thank Him.  And if God chooses to say, "No," that doesn't mean God is less worthy of our praise.

Little did we know in the Summer of 2020 that we 
weren't yet even 25% of the way through this.

Scripture tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith [Hebrews 11:6] and when we choose to be thankful and praise God at all times, we are exercising our faith.  We are praising God because He is capable of doing everything we ask and then so much more.  He is worthy of our praise ... just because He is God.  And it pleases Him if we praise Him ahead of time because we are saying, God, whether or not you choose to answer my prayers, I praise you for who you are.  I thank you for all you've given me.  And Lord, even if you choose to say "no" to my requests, I know you have your reasons.  You are the only one who is the Alpha and the Omega, the only omniscient one, and the one who loves me most.  Your thoughts are much higher than mine and your ways are higher than mine as well [Isaiah 55:8-9].  We can and should choose to be thankful in all things.

Another COVID patient succumbs to the virus at TMH during the Delta Wave, August 2021

And this brings me to my principal life verse and the very Scripture for which this blog was named some thirteen years ago.  "Brothers, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." -- Philippians 3:12-14

The first of what is now a steady stream of miracles of deliverance from this virus

Four hundred years ago this month, in November 1621, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast following the Pilgrims first year in America inviting a group of the fledgling colony's Native American allies including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit.  This is now remembered as America's "first Thanksgiving" -- although the Pilgrims themselves may have not used that specific term at the time  -- this celebration lasted for three days.  We also know that two years later they repeated this celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened that year's harvest.  Days of thanksgiving became a common practice in many New England settlements going forward.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving every year beginning in 1777, and in 1789 President George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by our national government.  In it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion our war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution.  His successors, John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanksgiving during their presidencies as well.  But afterwards the practice of yearly Thanksgivings dissipated, though New York and a few other states to adopted an annual Thanksgiving holiday, each celebrated on a different day.  However, the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.

However, in 1827 the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale [author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" ... among countless other things] launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.  And for the next 36 years, she published numerous editorials in magazines, newspapers and books and sent scores of letters to governors, presidents, and other politicians requesting this repeatedly, earning her the nickname as the "Mother of Thanksgiving."

Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to "commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife" and to "heal the wounds of the nation."  He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when President Franklin Roosevelt moved it up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression.  Roosevelt's plan, known derisively as "Franksgiving," was met with passionate opposition and in 1941, the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Did any of you know about Sarah Josepha Hale's prolonged persistence in creating this holiday that we so often take for granted?  Have you even ever heard of her?  What if she had chosen to give up her quest after one year or ten years or even twenty years?  Her goal would have been left unfinished.  Just like her story, our Christian walk of faith is often described as a marathon and not a sprint.  Every day of our lives is another day to choose between right and wrong, to perhaps help or serve another person in need, to literally die to self to serve our God in both big and small ways.  As Christians we are called to persevere, to press on.  Often it can feel like an unrewarding task.  It is hard but important and we can look to God for the bigger plan.  These past two years have only served to emphasize the monotony of the struggle.  There has been much suffering and great loss.  Our country seems lost and adrift at sea drowning in strife and questioning the very truths it was founded on and that which is still all around it.  Spiritual blindness seems to be the real affliction of our days.  Our mission since Jesus ascension is and has been still the same ... "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded of you."  And if we obey him in this, then his very promise at the end of this commission will always be true as well ... "And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."  And that right there is all we really need to be truly thankful.