Thanksgiving, 2014
27/11/14 05:22
Anne Lamott says that the three essential prayers of life are: “Help!” “Thanks!” and “Wow!” There is a lot to her essays about spirituality. Life is filled with pain, beauty, and mystery. Responding to them with hones and open prayer is at the core of developing a relationship with God. Much of the Bible can be summed up with Lamott’s three words.
Today is the day for thanks. There has been so much written about how living a life of gratitude improves one’s outlook, mental health, and relationships with others. I am sure that there is much truth in these insights.
There are, however, some of the trappings of a traditional Thanksgiving that seem to be a bit less appealing than the core idea of the holiday. Too often we are tempted to pray, “Thank God I’m not like that person!” or “Thank you God for my material wealth.” I suppose gratitude is appropriate for the accident of birth and the location of one’s growing up. Still it seems inherently wrong to use a prayer of gratitude as a way of comparing oneself with the “Joneses.”
I am not sure that I understand how watching three NFL games in one day is an expression of gratitude, but it is a way that some will spend the day.
I don’t have much understanding or sympathy for those who will gorge themselves on a big meal and then head to the stores for a weekend shopping frenzy. That somehow seems like a less prayerful way of saying thanks than some other options.
More meaningful to me are some thanksgiving observances that will be a bit more subdued.
As I begin this Thanksgiving day, my prayers are with a family in our church whose father died yesterday. He had a long, courageous and meaningful life, filled with service to others and dedication to his family. Still, I think that preparation for his funeral and walking the journey of grief will be more at the heart of their day than some of the other frills of Thanksgiving. On the other hand, I know that when they think of it, gratitude for his life is at the core of their experience. I’m certainly grateful that I got to know him and had nearly 20 years of shared friendship.
My thanksgiving thoughts are with my friends in the St. Louis area, especially those in the Ferguson area. Their day may be filled with more questions than answers. It isn’t clear why a grand jury decision, reached in daylight, was delayed and the announcement made after dark when everyone knew the potential for violence. It isn’t clear how soon destroyed and damaged businesses will be able to go back to serving their community. It isn’t clear how to restore trust in the police or criminal justice system. It isn’t clear how new police officers will be recruited, trained, equipped and deployed in a system with such intense emotions and such a long history of racism.
Today I pray with the family of Jayla Rodriguez who buried their eight-year-old yesterday at Pine Ridge. Good people are working to round up the stray dogs, all too numerous, on the reservation. Those who have been around for a while all know that there will be as many dogs in a few years and that the “solutions” are only temporary. Tragedy is woven into the core of one of the most impoverished communities in our nation and it will take more than a couple of animal control officers with guns and a horse trailer to address the systematic problems of entrenched poverty and decrease the depth of tragedy that marks life on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Today I pray with the students and families at the University of Virginia. The Rolling Stone article detailing the pattern of sexual assault among the fraternities at the university has already caused changes on the campus, but it remains unclear whether the University will continue its practice of holding in-campus investigations instead of using law enforcement to investigate allegations of felonies committed on campus. No one is clear how much assault is part of the culture that has developed on campus and how safe the university can become for present and future students.
Today I pray with the health care workers scrambling to develop an effective vaccine for Ebola and those who are working to provide care and treatment to Ebola victims in the parts of Africa where the epidemic is most severe. It can be frustrating and disheartening to work with inadequate resources, doing your best to provide essential care to those who suffer and then to return home to discover irrational fear and panic among those who have access to effective treatment.
It is harder to develop an attitude of gratitude when one opens oneself to the pain of the world. But that is exactly the invitation of this day. As the ancients discovered, despite pain and fear and injustice and tragedy, God continues to work in this world. Despite outward appearances, those who suffer are not left alone and those who willingly stand by the victims discover the presence of the holy in ways they might not have imagined possible.
One of the reasons that I find it so deeply meaningful to read the Psalms over and over again is that they illustrate, in deep and powerful poetry strong enough to stand the rigors of translation, how our people have struggled to reach gratitude in the midst of difficult and trying circumstances for thousands of years. Ours isn’t the first generation to confront the reality that pain and beauty and mystery are not somehow divided experiences, each encountered in a pure and simple state. We are more honest when we pray of all of our emotions in a single breath. That’s where I would add a chapter to Lamott’s book. Help, Thanks and Wow aren’t three separate essential prayers. Helpthankswow is an integrated experience and all three prayers mix with our tears when we pray honestly.
May your thanksgiving bring you depth upon depth of meaning and an honest encounter with hunger that a big meal will not satisfy.
Blessings!
Today is the day for thanks. There has been so much written about how living a life of gratitude improves one’s outlook, mental health, and relationships with others. I am sure that there is much truth in these insights.
There are, however, some of the trappings of a traditional Thanksgiving that seem to be a bit less appealing than the core idea of the holiday. Too often we are tempted to pray, “Thank God I’m not like that person!” or “Thank you God for my material wealth.” I suppose gratitude is appropriate for the accident of birth and the location of one’s growing up. Still it seems inherently wrong to use a prayer of gratitude as a way of comparing oneself with the “Joneses.”
I am not sure that I understand how watching three NFL games in one day is an expression of gratitude, but it is a way that some will spend the day.
I don’t have much understanding or sympathy for those who will gorge themselves on a big meal and then head to the stores for a weekend shopping frenzy. That somehow seems like a less prayerful way of saying thanks than some other options.
More meaningful to me are some thanksgiving observances that will be a bit more subdued.
As I begin this Thanksgiving day, my prayers are with a family in our church whose father died yesterday. He had a long, courageous and meaningful life, filled with service to others and dedication to his family. Still, I think that preparation for his funeral and walking the journey of grief will be more at the heart of their day than some of the other frills of Thanksgiving. On the other hand, I know that when they think of it, gratitude for his life is at the core of their experience. I’m certainly grateful that I got to know him and had nearly 20 years of shared friendship.
My thanksgiving thoughts are with my friends in the St. Louis area, especially those in the Ferguson area. Their day may be filled with more questions than answers. It isn’t clear why a grand jury decision, reached in daylight, was delayed and the announcement made after dark when everyone knew the potential for violence. It isn’t clear how soon destroyed and damaged businesses will be able to go back to serving their community. It isn’t clear how to restore trust in the police or criminal justice system. It isn’t clear how new police officers will be recruited, trained, equipped and deployed in a system with such intense emotions and such a long history of racism.
Today I pray with the family of Jayla Rodriguez who buried their eight-year-old yesterday at Pine Ridge. Good people are working to round up the stray dogs, all too numerous, on the reservation. Those who have been around for a while all know that there will be as many dogs in a few years and that the “solutions” are only temporary. Tragedy is woven into the core of one of the most impoverished communities in our nation and it will take more than a couple of animal control officers with guns and a horse trailer to address the systematic problems of entrenched poverty and decrease the depth of tragedy that marks life on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Today I pray with the students and families at the University of Virginia. The Rolling Stone article detailing the pattern of sexual assault among the fraternities at the university has already caused changes on the campus, but it remains unclear whether the University will continue its practice of holding in-campus investigations instead of using law enforcement to investigate allegations of felonies committed on campus. No one is clear how much assault is part of the culture that has developed on campus and how safe the university can become for present and future students.
Today I pray with the health care workers scrambling to develop an effective vaccine for Ebola and those who are working to provide care and treatment to Ebola victims in the parts of Africa where the epidemic is most severe. It can be frustrating and disheartening to work with inadequate resources, doing your best to provide essential care to those who suffer and then to return home to discover irrational fear and panic among those who have access to effective treatment.
It is harder to develop an attitude of gratitude when one opens oneself to the pain of the world. But that is exactly the invitation of this day. As the ancients discovered, despite pain and fear and injustice and tragedy, God continues to work in this world. Despite outward appearances, those who suffer are not left alone and those who willingly stand by the victims discover the presence of the holy in ways they might not have imagined possible.
One of the reasons that I find it so deeply meaningful to read the Psalms over and over again is that they illustrate, in deep and powerful poetry strong enough to stand the rigors of translation, how our people have struggled to reach gratitude in the midst of difficult and trying circumstances for thousands of years. Ours isn’t the first generation to confront the reality that pain and beauty and mystery are not somehow divided experiences, each encountered in a pure and simple state. We are more honest when we pray of all of our emotions in a single breath. That’s where I would add a chapter to Lamott’s book. Help, Thanks and Wow aren’t three separate essential prayers. Helpthankswow is an integrated experience and all three prayers mix with our tears when we pray honestly.
May your thanksgiving bring you depth upon depth of meaning and an honest encounter with hunger that a big meal will not satisfy.
Blessings!