Thanksgiving 2020

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ― Albert Camus

Gratitude has often been easy for me. As a child, I felt particularly blessed. With a loving family, a wonderful home, and good friends it was easy to feel blessed. Because I didn’t know what to do my gratitude, I directed it to God. Looking back, I can see that gratitude was my first theological thought, my first hymn, and my most frequent sermon. 

I suppose that’s one reason I’ve always loved Thanksgiving. More than the fact that the food was good, the attire relaxed, and I got to see my cousins, it was a day of gratitude and I found it easy to come up with a list of things for which I was thankful when I was told to bow my head at the table.

But this Thanksgiving comes while my heart is troubled by all that is going on in the world. The political yard signs have been put away, but the scars remain. A pandemic has disrupted every aspect of life and we are staggering with fatigue from the new protocols and the way people do or do not comply. The houses in our neighborhood have not moved, but everyone seems more distant than a year ago. Keeping a social distance and wearing masks haven’t helped.

Just as a shadow draws attention to a light, an illness to good health, a loss to a beloved friend, the present darkness can either shroud our blessings or cause them to stand out. 

We cannot be with everyone we love this year – aren’t we blessed to love so many?

We’re exhausted (hurt, happy, wounded) from the election – aren’t we blessed to live where people care about their country?

We’re distraught by the statistics – aren’t we blessed to have our health?

We are worried about our finances – aren’t we blessed to have food at the table and enough to give to others?

We’re confused by all that’s happening – aren’t we blessed to have faith?

In the midst of the darkness, or winter, that surrounds us this Thanksgiving, there’s a light, or invincible summer, and on that I will focus as I bow my head this year.

Spiritual Java

I want to share with you, the Brushstrokes readers, the news of my book being out. While some of the 365 meditations will sound familiar to you, this is a book that I hope will speak to your hearts. I am grateful to each of you for caring enough to read my blogs and the students willing to sit through the ones that were sermons. Like the author himself, the book is imperfect, but hopefully it will stir your souls from time to time and draw you closer to a life of faith.

So shop early and often . . . (Amazon.com)

The Whole Prayer

There’s a moment in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they find a relic with instructions inscribed on it about where to search for the lost ark. The twist comes when they realize there are additional instructions on the other side. To use what’s written on one side is to look in the wrong place. To use both is to find the treasure.

In 12-step recovery rooms, the meetings begin with a prayer written by Reinhold Niebuhr that has become known as The Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can, 

and the wisdom to know the difference.

It is a wonderful prayer that captures the daily struggle to live between the things we can do something about and the things we cannot. It remains a meaningful prayer, but I learned years after entering the rooms that there’s more to the prayer: 

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

As it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make things right

If I surrender to His Will;

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life

And supremely happy with Him

Forever and ever in the next.

Amen.

Like the relic in the movie, it added something to the prayer that helped me in my search for serenity. Being reminded to live one day at a time, to accept hardship and realize the world and those in it are not as I might like them to be, and trusting God’s got this if only I could surrender my need for control makes me able to be reasonable happy now and supremely happy later.

Recently, I’ve needed every word as I’ve tried to live through an awful election, a pandemic, and a world that seems to be clinging to life. There are days when the short version is all I need, but there are also days when I need the whole prayer. It contains all I need to find what I am looking for.