O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.
Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Psalm 105: 1-3
Praise and thanksgiving form part of the foundation of faith. Without them, any attempt at spiritual growth is stillborn. For this reason, the medieval theologian Meister Eckhard once observed: “If the only prayer you said was thank you that would be enough.”
While we deserve credit for using our abilities, time, and energy wisely, much of what makes us who we are lies outside the scope of personal control or credit. We cannot choose our parents or the inherited qualities of character and intellect we harness to make our living; neither can we choose our race, gender, nation of birth, era, or the socio-economic class into which we are born. Depending upon one’s perspective, these things come to us by divine providence or chance.
We in the United States live in a nation in which everyone is relatively rich by global standards. Even if you should find yourself among the bottom 5% of Americans in terms of income, you would still be doing better than 68% of the world’s population in terms of international dollars adjusted for purchasing power. That is the finding of Branko Milanovic of the World Bank, who concludes that the single greatest influence on lifetime income is the nation of one’s birth.
While we can’t choose where we are born, we can choose how we react when we look around and find ourselves living under conditions only dreamt of by the majority of persons on the planet. Either we can delude ourselves into thinking that, as individuals we are somehow entitled to our special status, or we can thank God for the location of our birth and for the blessings of liberty, wisdom, and industry by which our forbearers built the society into which we were born.
Gratitude moves us to aid the less fortunate and help them help themselves – even if the folks in our neighborhoods are doing better than many others in the world. On the other hand, a sense of entitlement hardens the heart and convinces persons that what they or others have is due solely to individual effort. In these challenging economic times, America needs its annual day of gratitude now more than ever.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Pastor Derek French