Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day is upon us and I am grateful to my friend Dave Skene who helped me see the importance of Gratitude itself. I am far from having this perspective with me all the time but any relationship with God must begin with gratitude. It’s our initial touch point with understanding our lives in relation to the divine. God is and he is good. He gave everyone life and for that we must be thankful. It’s something that we could not give ourselves. Even if our life is a train wreck, even if bad things happen...we’re still alive, we still have a chance, we cannot give this to ourselves. We can waste the gift, squander it, be ungrateful for it, complain about it, despair over it but through it all there is still the chance...the option to live it gratefully.

Of course, negative experience will come. We cannot be “happy” all the time. But where am I miserable? Where am I not content? Where am I impatient? Where am I not kind? Where have I lost sight? It is in those places that I am not grateful, that I am not remembering the most basic gift given to me...my life. If all else fades, today...while it is still called today...I have the greatest gift I could ever have, another chance.

And so much more...

Pardon for sin
A peace that endureth
Thine own dear Presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine with ten-thousand beside

“Enter in His gates with thanksgiving...”