The Bear, The Turtle, and Thanksgiving

Today, I'm going to start with a word association game. Since I am not asking for results, you are completely safe in your own psychological cocoon. 

Besides, ask anyone. I do not play games. No Monopoly. No Scrabble. Nope, not even Simon Says.

So, here's the test. Write down the first word that comes to your mind when someone says:

• Bear
• Turtle
• Thanksgiving

Well then, that takes care of today's title. And if you're asking where this stuff comes from, save your breath - you should know better. I have no idea.

But I took this test. (If I call it a test, then it's not a game!)

• Hibernation
• Headless
• Grateful

Here is my takeaway from this exercise.

I do not wish to pull my head into a shell and hibernate when it comes to being grateful. 

Pretty clever!

The point is that I wish to embrace gratitude rather than hide from it. And it's harder than you might think. Gratefulness could be an overused term, but I'm at a loss to come up with a better one. We tend to think of it more in terms of thankfulness. Without question, we have millions of reasons to be thankful. 

Since this is November, there's a lot of noise about Thanksgiving; the day, and the concept. We thank God for the blessings we've been given and then we gather around a table of impressive food preparations while telling jokes and catching up with family and friends. This is followed by either a caloric coma including sporadic snoring or spending the next few hours working off our excessive intake by getting excited about a Football game - or ten. 

Well, it's a holiday and the kick-off (no pun intended) for a season of love and celebration for many reasons. It is time for gather together with family and friends. It's a happy time!

At this point, you have a decision to make. The center of what's written above is truly to say, 

"Happy Thanksgiving to All!  May you be blessed beyond measure.  May your travels be safe and may your gatherings be merry. May your calorie count, like mine, be zero!"

You may stop here.

Or you may continue reading. Just know that it gets a little more personal and a bit darker than what you might want this week.  

* * * 

Getting back to the gratitude / thanksgiving thing, I think the definition changes a bit if we are looking for a closer relationship with God. I am considering the idea that gratitude seeks more from us than thanksgiving. I read what's written below with an eye towards the concept that gratefulness begins with, of all things, forgiveness. 

From the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew (Message translation), we are told,

“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

“This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave at once, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

“Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you’re likely to end up in court, maybe even jail. If that happens, you won’t get out without a stiff fine."

If forgiveness is a requirement for the offering of praise and thanksgiving, we might need to consider our next moves. Being grateful for enemies sounds less than realistic. And now, a grateful heart might be sharing that boat as well. 

But twisting the emphasis, perhaps we ARE grateful for enemies.

1. Maybe those on the 'other side' supply us with our preferred identity while connecting us with like-minded groups of people that we wish to be associated with. It’s even possible we relish something of the “us versus them” mentality. We might consider that we get a good deal of ‘life’ from confrontation, from bashing opponents, from being ‘right’, and from being in communion with the “good” in us against the “evil” in everybody else. 
2. Another way of looking at that might mean that we can be grateful for enemies because they teach us how we can grow our relationship with God.  

As we enter this season of giving thanks, I will be grateful. I will, like nearly all of us, give thanks for the food we are about to eat, for cooperative weather which produces safer travel, for living in a country of plenty, for family, for well, all those true and worthwhile things that we typically say around the dinner table. 

In my soul, I will be pulling my head out of the shell of disunity looking for ways to stay awake to my responsibility for mending broken relationships and beginning newly formed partnerships as well. I will focus, forgive, offer, and be grateful. Please, Come Holy Spirit, Come.

If you are as curious about yourself as I am about motives, feelings, and biases, you can always consider word associations of a more challenging nature. Understanding is the first step in the journey to a grateful heart.

• Climate Change
• Covid
• Cranberries
• CRT
• Democrat
• Dressing
• Elections
• Electric Cars
• Family
• Friends
• Gravy
• Hugs
• Jury Deliberations
• Laughing
• Mashed Potatoes
• Pumpkin Pie
• Republican
• Rights
• The Brandon Thing
• Turkey
• Vaccinations
• Whipped Cream

End of comments.

And once again, Happy Thanksgiving!