Thoughts On Thanksgiving

As a Christian, as a believer in God Almighty, and in the redemptive process of Jesus’ atoning death, it is pretty much a given that you are bathed in blessings and have a lot to be grateful for. So, the North American Thanksgiving holiday theme is pretty much the easiest holiday for me to wrap my head around. Be thankful, be grateful, no problem. The words of the famous song, ‘We gather together’ show just how ensconced in the Judeo-Christian ethos this holiday is. This year is a little different. 

Over the years, I have gathered bare, fallen tree branches from my autumnal New York garden and put them in a vase. Then, I would cut leaf-shaped patterns out of construction paper and print the words: ‘I am most grateful for” and then leave an empty space. Family and guests would then write what they were most grateful for on that paper leaf. Next, we would look at the tree with its’ pinned on leaves and talk about how God had blessed us. Every one at the table had different challenges and different blessings every single year. What we all realized is how enormously important it was to take time to focus on just what blessings we had at the moment. Many families have similar traditions. 

But, this year in New York, the hottest holiday accoutrement is the plastic window sticker featuring New York governor Andrew Cuomo peeking in your window to see if you have less than ten people at your gathering. This year, there will be no fanfare, no plane trips or long car rides for me. Zoom replaced in-person contact. The supermarket seemed eerily empty. Usually a week before Thanksgiving means waiting on long lines and coping with an increase of traffic jams. Not this year. Even if I had decided to get on an airplane, it wouldn’t seem the same. The fun is drained from such activities. I would have to get q-tips shoved up my nose, endure wearing masks all day, and face possible quarantines.

I have learned that being a believer doesn’t mean you have to be serendipitous. That thought led me to the book of Ruth in the Bible and the story of Naomi. Having endured drought, relocation, the death of her husband and sons, and then reestablishing herself in the land of Israel as an old woman, she remarked, call me Mara for I am bitter. Some poor woman just welcomed her home, and at that moment all of Naomi’s emotions came gushing forth. Ruth 1:20-21 Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.

I relate a lot to Naomi’s plight this Thanksgiving. We know that Naomi’s husband and sons had died in the land of Moab. Did they die of starvation? Or, did they die of some disease ravaging their camp. A virus like Covid-19 perhaps? I know that we all can relate to Naomi’s feelings of loss as we go through life but doesn’t it have special meaning this year as we all deal with Covid-19 and its’ effects?

Naomi had gotten to the end of her rope and she was bitter. I love the word, bitter. It is so evocative. I think of food that doesn’t taste quite right. Babies frequently give that scrunched eye look and push food out with their tongue when they think it is bitter. A well that has been polluted in a sense is bitter. 

Bitter can also be a state of mind. One who is jaded and has turned pessimistic is bitter. Bitter also means resentful of a circumstance. It could be a marital situation, a job loss, an illness or an injustice. Whatever it is, it has the effect of turning your life from sweet to sour. This year each and every one of us faces the possibility of becoming bitter.

The pilgrims must have had a lot of negative thoughts and feelings which they had to combat. Yet, all those years ago, they chose to have a period of prayer and thanksgiving to God Almighty and focus on what they could be grateful for. They put down their farming and building tools, they left the hard work of life aside and found some joy. Amid the difficult times that we are facing, we must learn lessons from the life of the pilgrims and from the Book of Ruth. 

The pilgrims were instrumental in establishing the United States. Because of them, the country was founded with religious principles. They sought “freedom of religion” and had a desire to follow in the holiness model that God had set before us.  Because it is written, Be ye Holy for I am Holy - 1 Peter 1:16. Everything the pilgrims did was to establish God’s kingdom on earth. They reverenced God and the precepts of the Bible along the way and so they helped established godly principle in the founding of the United States. It is written in our constitution and other founding documents.

So too, Naomi had her place in establishing the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ. But, neither the pilgrims nor Naomi knew at the time where their little faithfulness would lead. They may never have known how important that staying the course and following God was. They walked in faith and so must we because it has enormous meaning. 

Both the pilgrims and Naomi had to work very hard because of the situations they were in. Maybe you must too right now. Every time we struggle in the moment let us have a vision of the future and what God can do. Even if it looks grim now, God’s promise says our life and struggles have meaning. 

And God shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age- Ruth 4:15a

Tale of Two Funerals

Funeral One: Only the good die young, so Tio Julio* lived to a ripe old age. He was surrounded by family who stood beside him, despite the wrong he had done them. At his funeral, monstrous lies were told about how good he was. It was like a big lie propaganda campaign to rehabilitate him. Did you ever hear the expression, never speak ill of the dead? Well, Tio Julio’s family took that to a whole new level.

Those of you following my blog for a while know the story of Uncle Julio (see Tio Julio, do you have a Tio Julio? Part 1 & Part 2, July 18 & 26, 2016). He was a man who set the tempo for generations of his family on a cruel and criminal path. When I wrote that story, I was dealing with two Christian men who each had this legacy in their family. One of the men was a relative of Tio Julio and even though he was a Christian he was still used to doing things in the way his family had taught him. Wondering how I could help them, I wrote my two-part piece to assist them in working through these issues. It is important to know that whatever you are going through, that you are not alone. Just what does a Christian approach to family dilemmas look like? That is what my blog is all about.

Since I wrote the original story, Tio Julio has passed away. It was painful for me to see how his whole family gathered round his casket, in a post-COVID sort of way, and told stories and gave testimonials to his white-washed life. I know it seems rather innocent and perhaps good to see the best in a person at their funeral. We also know that forgiveness is our goal too, but can we truly forgive unless we first tell the truth?

Understand, I do not advocate outing a person’s criminal past at a funeral and creating a scene. I have heard about and seen many a family drama play out at a funeral. A former neighbor Jim, once told me the story of guns being pulled out at one of his family funerals in Yonkers, New York. Things like that are the sad conclusion of a lifetime of repressing your family problems until you can’t any more. The time for confrontations are when a person is alive. If we see friends and family going astray we should always say something and not wait. We need to start praying as events unfold. We need to be actively planting seeds for Jesus.

Tio Julio’s life might have been completely different if more people had done that. But, do we lie at a funeral? Thou shalt not lie, except at a funeral? We can be respectful and comfort those in grief without telling huge whoppers. We can forgive without pretending that the offense never occurred or worst pretending, like at Tio Julio’s funeral, like he was a civil rights activist and a father of the year. Read my original story if you have any doubts. No, the decision not to follow Christ touched everything Julio said and did. It touched, his work, his family and his community. 

The truth is Tio Julio had two sons who had been incarcerated. Those are the ones that got caught. There were a couple of wife beaters in the family. Tio Julio had two sons who had beat their wives, and a grandson who had the same issue. He even had a granddaughter who got arrested for physical aggression with her partner. One grandson forged documents for a living. Many failed marriages occurred in his family too. One of his daughters even rivaled Elizabeth Taylor for most marriage and divorces. I think Hope* went down the aisle 5 times. She claims this one is a keeper though. As some of these truths were revealed over the years family members choose to look the other way. Pretend it wasn’t happening. Afraid of being cut-off by said family members, or just too jaded to care.

Funeral Two: Last fall, David* fell ill rather suddenly. Although he was in his seventies, he had not retired. He was a strong and energetic man. David loved his family, he loved his church and job, but most of all he loved Jesus. He had made Jesus the center of his life a long time ago and came from a long line of those who had done the same. His father was an elder, his son heads a ministry or two at their church. His daughter is interested and involved in every ministry that I can think of. David’s decision for Christ touched everything that he said and did over the years. You could see the fruit of this in his family and at his church. 

David and his wife sacrificed much time and energy to so many activities, too many to name. If it needed to be cut, pasted, copied, moved, carried or hammered they did it. There was ushering and David’s service as an elder. Now, I don't want you to think that David was perfect. Even King David in the Bible wasn’t perfect. I do think that even though both David’s weren’t perfect, they were both menfolk “who were men after God’s own heart.” 

The decision to follow Jesus Christ has eternal consequences not just for you but for generations to come. It effects the family views on marriage, divorce and child rearing. What is right and what is wrong. I saw no divorce in David’s family. I saw no violence in fact the opposite. David was a big bear of a man, yet he brought gentleness and sensitivity to all that he did. No bragging at the funeral occurred. People spoke of David’s many virtues when they went to meet the family or after the service when we gathered for a post-COVID outdoors coffee hour. 

It doesn’t mean that his marriage had no problems because it did, they resolved it. It doesn’t mean that conflicts didn’t arise but, that the family sought God and His wisdom in working through the issues. There were some serious illnesses in this family. David helped his wife to the car during those outbreaks. Housed a family member in need. Had his door open for those seeking godly counsel when he was an elder. 

Again, I say, he was not perfect. Perhaps, he should have made better plans for his family, such as a good insurance policy. What of his widow’s financial needs after his death? He should have had a retirement savings plan. But, he did not steal from anyone, and he did not fail for lack of a work ethic. He worked doing physical labor until the last year of his life when he could no longer manage it. He worked at home, and he worked at church. But, because he was a good Christian man, he taught his family through word and example how to love one another the way Christ loved us. I already see them pulling together to work through any financial shortfalls by hard work and helping one another in times of need. Can you believe they actually told the truth about David’s shortfalls at his service? Well, they did. 

So, you see we have the Tale of Two Funerals. Two lives contrasted and two family systems laid bare. Will we learn the lessons to live for God. Can we see the different outcomes that occur?

* the names have been changed but the story is true.

What Now?

This was by no means an easy or normal presidential election in the United States of America. Or, maybe it was. Maybe, in any presidential election there is a civil war of opinions. Maybe, there has always been corruption as countries try to count their votes. Perhaps, I was stubbornly idealistic in failing to see these things. Could it be that my hope in humanity was misplaced in some worldly compromise. Because, the Bible says that we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. Did I think that politics was immune from the truth of our human nature? 

Many of the founding fathers of the American republic were mature Christian men. They created the many checks and balances inherent in the government to counteract the inherent sin nature of humanity. They had no allusions. They indicated often that the ultimate defender of freedom and the rights of man were an informed and engaged citizenry. So What Now?

We need to pray and then be an informed and engaged citizenry. We need to look deeper than what is on the surface of this contested election and come to terms with the truth of politics. So many things have come into play rather quickly without being fully tested and vetted. Things such as early voting, mail-in ballots and computer voting. In order for us to be sure of the election results, we have to make certain that we are not allowing dead people to vote, or that there has not manipulation of computer data. What about ballots that were thrown out? 

We can not ignore the fact that Donald Trump’s four years of presidency have been filled with lies and attempts to overthrow his legitimate election. All of the allegations made against him were disproven too. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Those investigations cost the United States citizen millions of dollars. That is theft through taxes for nefarious purposes. Isn’t theft another no-no in the Ten Commandments? 

Why would the president’s opponents change their tactics now? I mean does a leopard change his spots? I know so-called comedienne Kathy Griffith didn’t. She is tweeting the same old picture of her holding the decapitated head of Donald Trump as she did in the last election. What an awful thing to do. Several people were recently murdered this way in France. Is she advocating this?

We have to use every legal recourse at our disposal to uncover the truth. As believers we stand for the truth. Many times in recent history Christians have given up the fight and when we do evil takes our place. This time is not unlike the time when the Jews entered the land that God had given them. That beautiful land of milk and honey. But, they had a fight ahead of them to rid it of evil and to claim it. 

Jesus told us that if we are to follow Him that we must take up our cross. God has never promised us a rose garden. What He has done is told us the truth about this world and encouraged us to do right. We know that God will give us the strength to do the things we must if we go to Him and ask for help.

Of course, we each have our life to live. I had a minor flood in my basement this week. Then, there was the two shingles that have to be repaired after a recent wind storm. Need an inspection sticker for my car. Bills to be paid, dinners to cook. But, are we guilty of ignoring the bigger picture of life because we get lost in our own little world? 

We ought to get involved now before it is too late. There are many good Christians groups that can help you in this endeavor. There is Ralph Reed’s Faith & Freedom Coalition, My Faith Votes and American Center for Law and Justice. I am sure that you know some groups too. Also, don’t believe everything that you read or see on the news. Have discernment regarding such things. All discernment comes from understanding the spiritual realms of good and evil through a study of the Bible and its’ precepts. With and through the Holy Spirit we have clarity and strength to stand for what is right. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me- John 5:30.