The Power of Giving Thanks
By Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe Staff, 11/23/2000
SOMETHING TO REFLECT on as you sit down to your Thanksgiving dinner: If you had been a Pilgrim, would you have given thanks?
Consider what they had been through, the men and women who broke bread together on that first Thanksgiving in 1621. They had uprooted themselves and sailed for America, an endeavor so hazardous that published guides advised travelers to the New World, ”First, make thy will.” The crossing was very rough and the Mayflower was blown off course. Instead of reaching Virginia, where Englishmen had settled 13 years earlier, the Pilgrims ended up in the wilds of Massachusetts. By the time they found a place to make their new home – Plymouth, they called it – winter had set in.
The storms were frightful. Shelter was rudimentary. There was little food. Within weeks, nearly all the settlers were sick.
”That which was most sad and lamentable,” Governor William Bradford later recalled, ”was that in two or three months’ time, half of their company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvy and other diseases…. There died sometimes two or three of a day.”
When spring came, Indians showed them how to plant corn, but their first crops were dismal. Supplies ran out, but their sponsors in London refused to send more. The first time the Pilgrims sent a shipment of goods to England, it was stolen by pirates.
If you had been there in 1621 – if you had seen half your friends die, if you had suffered through famine, malnutrition, and sickness, if you had endured a year of heartbreak and tragedy – would you have felt grateful?
Gratitude isn’t an emotion most of us cultivate. Even on Thanksgiving, we are more likely to concentrate on the turkey or the television than on giving thanks. But perhaps we would think differently about thankfulness if we realized its extraordinary power to improve our lives.
I mean something more than simply the civilizing benefits of good manners. Of course it is admirable to show gratitude. Nothing rankles more than showing kindness or generosity to someone who doesn’t appreciate it. But the value in giving thanks goes far beyond mere politeness. Gratitude is nothing less than the key to happiness.
For this penetrating insight into gratefulness, I am grateful to Dennis Prager, author of the shrewd and perceptive ”Happiness is a Serious Problem.”
”There is a `secret to happiness,”’ Prager writes, ”and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.”
This is a keen observation, and it helps explain why the Judeo-Christian tradition places such emphasis on thanking God. The liturgy is filled with expressions of gratitude. ”It is good to give thanks to the Lord,” begins the 92nd Psalm. Why? Because God needs our gratitude? No: because we need it. Learning to be thankful, whether to God or to other people, is the best vaccination against taking good fortune for granted. And the less you take for granted, the more pleasure and joy life will bring you.
If you never give a moment’s thought to the fact that your health is good, that your children are well-fed, that your home is comfortable, that your nation is at peace, if you assume that the good things in your life are ”normal” and to be expected, you diminish the happiness they can bring you. By contrast, if you train yourself to reflect on how much worse off you could be, if you develop the custom of counting your blessings and being grateful for them, you will fill your life with cheer.
It can be hard to do. Like most useful skills, it takes years of practice before it becomes second nature. This is one reason, Prager writes, that religion, sincerely practiced, leads to happiness – it ingrains the habits of thankfulness. People who thank God before each meal, for example, inoculate gratitude in themselves. In so doing, they open the door to gladness.
In a sense, gratitude is an expression of modesty. In Hebrew, the word for gratitude – hoda’ah – is the same as the word for confession. To offer thanks is to confess dependence, to acknowledgment that others have the power to benefit you, to admit that your life is better because of their efforts. That frame of mind is indispensable to civilized society.
Be thankful. Don’t take the gifts in your life for granted. Remember – as the Pilgrims remembered – that we are impoverished without each other, and without God. Whoever and wherever you are this Thanksgiving, the good in your life outweighs the bad. If that doesn’t deserve our gratitude, what does?
A cold volunteer at Walmart
Hope In A Bag is enjoying great success amidst the slumping economy and tight family budgets. Gathering volunteers received donations for the Hope Center Friday and Saturday as they passed out fliers containing suggested needed items and shoppers at Walmart responded with great generosity and brought out bags of hope filled with thousands of items like toothbrushes, deodorant, razors, socks and other items badly needed by the homeless men and women of Lexington.
So far, seven shopping carts were filled, plus some cash donations. Walmart is one of the full stores that will allow non-profit organizations to solicit outside their doors.
The collection will continue through the month of November as other churches and schools get involved. Donations can be taken to any UPS Store in Lexington or Winchester through November. For a list needed items, download the flier at The Gathering web site.
Please insert your credit card in the keypad and I will talk to you.
If you think that your visits to the doctor are a little less personal, since most of us now do not have “a” doctor but rather a “group” of doctors who may not even remember our name — just wait. We are about to enter into a new age of robotics.
I recently had a conversation with an emergency room doctor (never mind you snoopy types) about the health care issue. She said that she had chosen to be an emergency room doctor rather than be in private practice because the malpractice insurance and the business of setting up practice are just too much. She preferred to work her hours, take her money, and go home. I don’t much blame her. She was very critical of the legislation (1700 pages) that is threatening to make its way into our lives in the year 2013.
But what really shocked me was her story that she told of how the hospital where she was employed (a faith-based non-profit hospital that advertises their care for body and soul) is now using a robot in the ICU. The conversation arose when she said that a test that had been taken (again — don’t get curious here) would be read by a doctor in Australia via the internet. I thought that was interesting, but then she shocked me by saying that “upstairs they are using a robot to check on patients.”
“No way!”
“Yes, and recently when a patient died, they sent the robot out to tell the family.”
You read that correctly. I asked her twice just to make sure that I heard her correctly. The robot gave the family the news that their family member had died. She registered my shock and then told me that it had been done more than once. Just think about that. Think about the administrator and the staff that agreed to that.
Wake up America! We flew right by 2001 Space Odyssey. I do not believe that people will put up with that. But the problem is that we are so far removed from the free-market decisions because of our insurance companies. The patient does not reach in his or her pocket to buy the best care available. Most of us really have very little choice about the health insurance we have or how our insurance company spend the money. We desperately need a system where the patient is responsible for choosing and buying the care. No one would pay a bill after the robot gave the bad news. There needs to be a re-connect between our money and the care. Anything other than that, in my opinion, will just put the money and power in the hands of politicians and CEO’s who are building the robots.
I occasionally watch Extreme Makeovers Home Edition and last night I watched with real interest because the recipients were the Montgomery’s of Philo, Illinois which is located close to where we used to live in the Champaign area. Nathan and Jenny Montgomery and their four children lived in a house that was by most standards almost uninhabitable because they give their lives to a local Christian mission in Champaign. Salt & Light is the name of the mission where Nathan is the director. Salt & Light feeds, clothes, and fills in the gaps for people in Champaign. It is truly a model ministry, operated by men and women with servant hearts who put so much love into filling basic needs of poor people in the area.
The show was fantastic! The house the volunteers built for them and the work they did for Salt & Light was great. Extreme Makeover Home Edition has a pretty clean record of choosing needy people and then giving them far more than they expect. It was a great “feel-good” show, except for one glaring flaw. The flaw was a serious omission and it would have been insignificant to me except I am noticing it more and more. Salt & Light is a Christian ministry. They make no excuses about their faith. They seek to be the salt and light to this world (from Matthew 5: 13-16) and take their mission directly from the mouth of Jesus. Their mission statement is clearly a statement of faith. They want to “share the love of God by helping those in need.” And yet I did not hear the words “God” or “Jesus” in the entire broadcast. ABC completely neglected the reason for their lives! Instead, what was pushed was the benefit of volunteering. The Montgomery family got the glory and the people who helped build the house got the glory. Are they good people? Yes – way beyond the average. Do they deserve to be thanked? Most definitely! And yet, we did not hear even once hear the real reason why they do what they do. The entire motivation for their lives and the lives of the people who helped them was based in humanism, in a “do this and it will make you feel good” motive. The second motive that was sold was that if more people did this kind of thing, it would make the world a better place. Both are true, but both are half-truths. The love of God found in the person of Jesus Christ is THE reason. Every other motive is less and fall apart without the principle reason.
Jesus said, “. . . Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:16 (NLT) The “so that” clause is vital to this commandment. We are not told to help others so that we will feel good about ourselves. We are not told to spread the good news of volunteerism. Our service to God in the form of love in action for other people is to give God praise and glory. Our selfless actions are to point to God. The Montgomery’s lives do just that. The hundreds of volunteers who donated money, food, and labor for the Montgomery’s were mostly there, I would think, because they want to give glory to God. But when ABC omits that critical reason what we are left with is artificial light.
More and more we are hearing the benefits of volunteering. And yet, the benefits sold to us are not real benefits. Are we to help someone only when it makes us feel good? Are we to give only when the person deserves it? Are we to help so that someday someone will help us? These are the criterion in the fine print being sold as generic volunteerism. Yes, it is better than doing nothing, but it is just another version of Christianity Light. “All the taste but less filling.” It offends no one.
It is still refreshing that the small, tiny word “God” is so terrifying to many. ABC obviously has a policy against mentioning that dreaded and controversial word. And the word “Jesus” must only be used in reporting stories about weirdo wackos who kill the innocent or live double lives. God still scares the “bejeebies” out of the secular world. The message is changed from “We love because God first loved us” to “volunteerism is good for everyone.” I have learned that if you look behind the story, in most cases there is a story of faith. The reason why a young engineer and his wife leave a lucrative career and begin a ministry to the “least of these” is not because he is responding to the President’s call for volunteerism, but the Spirit’s call “pick up your cross and follow Me.”
If you have asked me how the Gathering was going in the last four months you probably got “Slow” as the answer. That is usually followed by “This is hard work.” It is, but I love it – most days. Two weeks ago Nina remarked that we really needed more time to pray at the Gathering. Strangely, that had been on my mind all day. I was trying to decide on a time and place when we could pray as a team. As we talked about that together, it hit me that we should pray first when we arrived at the school, instead of after everything was ready. I announced then that we would begin a Prayer Warrior time at 9:00 AM to ask God to send His people and to work in our midst that day. For the past two weeks we have done that, and the last two weeks have been awesome. We are seeing God move in the lives of our people in new ways that have a huge impact on all of us. Sunday, after months of empty chairs, we had to put out some more chairs. More than that, there was an expectancy and passion among us that confirms God’s answer to our Prayer Warrior prayers.
So, more important than good advertising, nice signs, great coffee, and killer videos is the power of prayer. God is waiting for us to pray so that He can prove Himself faithful. God is jealous of our hearts and wants the praise we bring as we lay it all out.
In July of 2004, the Arizona Game and Fish Department began nursing more than 30 emaciated, dehydrated, banged-up pelicans. During the previous two weeks, the injured pelicans had been found from Yuma to Phoenix.
The brown pelicans were injured when they descended from the sky, sailed low over sidewalks and asphalt highways, stretched out their feet as though to make a perfect splash landing in water, and then tumbled end over end when they instead hit the pavement.
The pelicans, apparently suffering a food shortage in California, flew to Arizona looking for fish. From the sky, the shimmering hot air over the black asphalt appeared to the Pelicans like water. Down they flew for fish and a refreshing dip in a lake. What they found instead was solid pavement, dehydration, hunger, and near death. Reality hits hard.
Thankfully, the Arizona Game and Fish Department came to their rescue.
Charlie Chaplin was a huge movie star in the silent-picture era. One of the by-products of his popularity were the look-alike contests that sprung up around the country. Contestants attempted to imitate Chaplin dressed as the “tramp” character he made popular in his films. Even the young up-and-coming actor Bob Hope entered such a contest in Cleveland, Ohio, and won.
Legends have sprung up that Chaplin himself took part in one contest. Steve Chandler in his book 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself says Chaplin was on holiday in Monaco when he decided to enter a Chaplin look-alike contest. Others cite the incident as taking place in Switzerland.
Although the event has been embellished through the years, it did occur. Chaplin entered a look-alike contest in a San Francisco theatre. Amazingly, Chaplin failed to even make the finals.
In a similar way, sometimes the lies of this world seem more real to us than the truth of God. Discovering the truth takes effort.
Millions of us in America are baby boomers, born between 1948 and 1964. That’s one out of every three people in America. Our entire generation was brought up on the book of all time, next to the Bible, Dr. Spock’s Baby Book. Dr. Spock expressed his opinions about what he thought was the proper way to raise children. Just a few years ago, Dr. Spock, now in his seventies, held a press conference and said, “Oops. I was wrong. That’s not the best way to do it. I’m sorry. Never mind.”
I’m thinking, “Well, thanks a lot. It’s a little late. I’m already dysfunctional!”
An entire generation was raised on a style of parenting that studies later confirmed just didn’t work. The average life of a science textbook is just eighteen months. After that, it’s out of date because knowledge is increasing so rapidly.
In a world where something’s changing every day, you don’t want to put your faith in something you can’t depend on tomorrow. Luke 21:33 says, “Though all heaven and earth shall pass away, yet my Word shall remain forever.” God’s Word has stood the test of time. You can trust it as your guidebook, as your authority, as your basis. Why? Because it is based on God’s character. It is impossible for God to lie. If you want something to build your life on that’s solid, you’d better build it on God’s truth.
In his book High Society, Joseph Califano, the chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, talks about the relationship between addicts and the church:
Chemistry is chasing Christianity as the nation’s largest religion. Indeed, millions of Americans who in times of personal crisis and emotional and mental anguish once turned to priests, ministers, and rabbis for keys to the heavenly kingdom now go to physicians and psychiatrists, who hold the keys to the kingdom of pharmaceutical relief, or to drug dealers and liquor stores, as chemicals and alcohol replace the confessional as a source of solace and forgiveness.
A popular belief among doctors and social scientists has been that many teens begin drug use and sexual activity to deal with depression. However, a study published in the October 2005 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reverses those beliefs.
Health policy researcher Denise Dion-Hallfors comments: “Findings from the study show depression came after substance and sexual activity, not the other way around.”
The data was gathered from a national survey of 13,491 adolescents. A large group of these teens, about 25 percent, were called “abstainers.” They had never had sex, smoked, drank alcohol, or taken drugs. Only 4 percent of these teens experienced depression.
The study also reported that girls among the 75 percent who had taken drugs and experimented with sex were 2–3 times more likely to experience depression than abstaining girls. Boys who engaged in binge drinking were 4.5 times more likely to experience depression than boys in the abstaining group. Boys smoking marijuana were more than 3 times more likely to be depressed than those who abstained.
Dr. Hallfors warns: “Parents, educators, and health practitioners now have even more reason to be concerned about teen risk behaviors, and to take action about alcohol, drugs, and sex.”[1]
In the article “Johnny Cash Approaches Judgment Day with Faith,” Cash tells Steve Beard of Relevant magazine about his drug use:
I used drugs to escape, and they worked pretty well when I was younger. But they devastated me physically and emotionally and spiritually. That last one hurt so much: to put myself in such a low state that I couldn’t communicate with God. There’s no lonelier place to be. I was separated from God, and I wasn’t even trying to call on him. I knew that there was no line of communication. But he came back. And I came back.[2]
[1] Taunya English, “Teen Sex and Drug Use May Be Cause of Depression, Not the Effect,” Health Behavior News Service (September 2005);
[2] Steve Beard, “Johnny Cash Approaches Judgment Day With Faith,” Relevant http:www.relevantmagazine.com (viewed 8-31-03)
Those who control their anger have great understanding; those with a hasty temper will make mistakes. Proverbs 14:29 (NLT)
Anger is the cause for many things that people regret.
Justin John Boudin, a 27-year-old man from Minnesota, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree assault charges for violently losing his temper. Here’s the irony: he was on his way to anger management class when he committed the crime.
According to the criminal complaint, Boudin was waiting at a bus stop when he started to harass a 59-year-old woman. Witnesses say he yelled at her over what he felt was a general lack of respect. When she took out her cell phone to call police, Boudin punched her in the face. When a 63-year-old man tried to stop him, Boudin hit him with a blue folder that held his anger management homework. Police tracked him down by using the papers inside.
Crazy things happen to our sense of judgment when we get angry.
In February 2009, a 27-year-old woman from Fort Pierce, Florida, walked into a McDonald’s restaurant and ordered a 10-piece McNuggets meal. You know how it is when you’re hungry and you have a taste for something particular. Your imagination starts working and you can almost taste those McNuggets now.
Well, that’s when things got really tough for this hungry woman. The person behind the counter took the order and received payment. The McDonald’s employee then discovered that they were out of those bite-sized, warm, tasty McNuggets. The employee told the customer that the restaurant had run out of McNuggets, and she would have to get something else from the menu. The customer asked for her money back. The employee said all sales are final, and she could have a larger priced item from the menu if she wanted.
The customer got angry. She wanted McNuggets—not a Big Mac, not a McRib, not a Quarter Pounder. She was angry, this was clearly an emergency, and she knew what to do in an emergency: she took out her cell phone and called 911 to complain. Apparently the 911 workers didn’t take her seriously, because the McNuggets-loving woman called 911 three times to get help!
She never got her McNuggets that night, but she did later get a ticket from police for misusing 911.
Anger twists our perspective. It skews our judgment. Anger makes small things big and big things small. When we’re angry, having to eat a burger instead of McNuggets is a disaster, and calling 911 is not a big deal.
What is the difference between anger, rage, and irritation?
Two friends, Bill and Tom, were drinking at an all-night café. They got into a discussion about the difference between irritation, anger, and rage. At about 1 A.M., Bill said, “Look, Tom, I’ll show you an example of irritation.”
He went to the pay telephone, put in a coin, and dialed a number at random. The phone rang and rang and rang. Finally when a sleepy voice at the other end answered, Bill said, “I’d like to speak to Jones.”
“There’s no one here named Jones,” the disgruntled man replied as he hung up.
“That,” Bill said to Tom, “is a man who is irritated.”
An hour later, at 2 A.M., Bill said, “Now I’ll show you a man who is angry.” He went to the phone, dialed the same number, and let it ring. Eventually, the same sleepy voice answered the phone.
Bill asked, “May I please speak with Jones?”
“There’s no one here named Jones,” came the angry reply, this time louder. The man slammed down the receiver.
An hour later, at 3 A.M., Bill said, “Now I’ll show you an example of rage.” He went to the phone, dialed the same number, and let it ring. When the sleepy man finally answered, Bill said, “Hi, this is Jones. Have there been any calls for me?”
This week we began the 45 Minute Party. Anyone who is new (that is pretty much everyone) I have invited to give me 45 minutes to tell them the vision of the Gathering as well as listen to their story as well. In return for giving me their time, I will buy them dessert . A vision is the desirable future, the goal of where we want to go and what we want to become. I try to cast visions that have specific and tangible elements, not vague hopes. So a part of the vision might be that in one year I see us being a body of about one hundred people. That is real and tangible.
As I have been working on this I have begun to wonder if we have a vision for our personal spiritual lives. Spiritual peace and contentment take work. I like to remind myself that I am only as good of a golfer as I want to be. If I practiced more I would be better, but I don’t which shows that I am only as good as I want to be. We can make that same observation in most areas of life, even in our walk of faith. The reality is that most people are just getting by. We pray a little. We study the Word a little. We serve a little. But we are quick to throw ourselves on the horns of the altar and claim that we are sinners saved by grace and we are not perfect so don’t expect too much from me. At some point (you decide) this apathy and sloppy grace becomes a lukewarm bath of vomit in the eyes of God. (Please excuse my imagery, but I thought I might be losing you by now. ) Where do we get off thinking that just getting by pleases God? God desires that we become strong in his Spirit and enjoy the fullness and wholeness of life given to us by the new covenant.
I think that part of the problem can be explained again by a golf illustration. If you play with golfers who are not as good as you, soon you find that you are shooting their score. You stop trying so hard. You accept their philosophy of golf: “I just play to have fun.” The same holds true in our walk as Christ-followers. We should be in the company of people who raise our expectations for ourselves. That is why we need churches that are strong and aim high and attract people who are serious about giving their lives away.
Do you have a vision for your maturity in Christ, or are you simply trying to not stand out as an outright sinner? God wants so much more for us than we are willing to admit or envision. Look up! Aim high! Expect God to transform you into a powerful vessel for His glory.
A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through human populations.
How disappointing to go the doctor, be treated like you are a pig, and then find out that you don’t have anything exotic or famous — “You just have the flu.” All of that aching and hurting, moaning and groaning, for nothing — almost. Be it here resolved that anyone who reads this and has “just the flu” can say without question that you almost had the Swine Flu. That should get you the attention you deserve.
Oh, the swine above was interviewed after leaving the vet’s office where he went thinking he had a case of “just the flu.”
At present, I am not feeling too well.
