EMAIL THIS PAGE
PRINT
RSS
There was only one restriction: don’t eat of the fruit of a specific tree. In a garden full of “yeses’ there was only one ‘no.’ Of course, we know how the story goes. The tempter comes and his first move is to direct their attention to the one thing they couldn’t have. And the rest, as they say, is history. Human nature hasn’t changed much since then. We can have a life full of blessing, but our temptation will still be to focus on what we don’t have or can’t do. Why is it that ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are two of the hardest words to teach our kids? Our world helps to foster this sense of entitlement. A nice house, good health, great vacations and living beyond our means have become fundamental American rights. Delayed gratification has gone missing from the cultural landscape. Contentment and simplicity are merely nostalgic remnants of a by-gone era. Hundreds of commercial images a day are designed to cultivate a dissatisfaction with what we have and to focus our attention to what we lack. These days, it seems the tempter has a marketing plan. Why is it that the day after our national celebration of “thanksgiving” – the day we are supposedly grateful for what we have – is the biggest shopping day of the year? Are we missing something? So maybe thanksgiving shouldn’t be a holiday. Maybe it should become a way of life where we begin to orient ourselves around what we have and not what we’re missing. Maybe the key to resisting temptation is cultivating that kind of heart. |
Comments
Holidays do bring out the giving in me, but I need to be this way all year long. Thanks for reminding me.
I agree!
I'd like to add some thoughts too if you don't mind...if you do, you can just delete this - it's your blog! :-)
I wonder what the reason of this inconsistency is...
Are we not thankful enough?
Do we not recognize how we have been blessed?
My guess, is that we give plenty of thanks...it's just for the wrong reasons.
When was the last time anyone has ever been told. Don't thank God for that? I know it might sound weird at first, but that's kind of the problem. We are conditioned from an early age to thank God for all things instead of in all things.
What exactly are we thankful for when we are praying?
For God helping us fulfill the American Dream?
For God stroking my pride?
For God giving me a life of luxury so that I'm comfortable?
I wonder if when we thank God, whether it be for our cars, our food, our home, our family, our friends, etc., if we are thanking him for His Kingdom or for ours...
Let us be more careful about what we thank God for. Let us be more careful about what we say God has 'done'. Let us learn to thank Him for those areas in our lives where His Kingdom flourishes, where basic needs are met and where true goodness (and not the cultural illusions) are had. Let us learn to NOT thank him for things that are of our own Kingdom and do not advance His Kingdom. Let us actually hallow His name.
“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Aren't those good things to thank God for? Aren't those Godly things? To not be unjust, to fast, to pay tithes...It's not the things, it's the reason why he's thankful.
We might say thanks at the beginning of every day and before every meal, but if it is a thankfulness to God for Our Kingdom, then it is a blasphemous and sinful thanksgiving. We must learn to thank God for His Kingdom...first we must learn to be thankful for it. May this be the reason for the season. A Thanksgiving for His Kingdom.
Grace and peace,
Ausitn
I misspelled my own name...well there goes any credibility I had :-)
peace
Austin -
I think you are really on to something here. Great thoughts! I particularly liked: ..."if we are thanking him for his Kingdom or ours..."
Thank you for this.