Thanksgiving – A Time for Gratitude
Around 2 A.M. on September 8, 1860, the steamship Lady Elgin collided with the schooner Augusta in the waters of Lake Michigan near Waukegan, Illinois. The freighter began to sink less than a mile from the shore. Hundreds of passengers began screaming as they leaped into the water.
Edward Spencer was a student at a nearby seminary, and he ran down to the beach to see what he could do. A strong swimmer, for six hours Spencer swam out and back, pulling people ashore, battling stormy waves and the powerful undertow. By dawn, he had personally rescued 15 people in as many trips. Exhausted, he sat down until someone spotted two more people still in the water.
Spencer dove in again and found a man and a woman clinging desperately to a piece of wreckage. He brought them in, too, and collapsed on the beach. Out of 393 passengers, only one-quarter were rescued, and 17 of them were saved by Edward Spencer.
His own health, however, was permanently damaged by his act of heroism. He was never able to return to school and ultimately lived out his days as an invalid. Years later, a reporter doing a story on Great Lakes tragedies found Spencer at a nursing home in California and asked for his recollections of that night.
Spencer said bitterly, "The only thing I remember is that not one of the 17 ever came by to thank me."[1]
Jesus encountered a similar incident. Jesus had just healed ten lepers but sadly, a while later, only one came back to thank him while the other nine were never heard from again. (See: Luke 17:11-19 )
Both of these stories reveal something about human nature. Ungrateful and hardened hearts are a common occurence. Entitlement and taking things for granted is something that plagues the human race.
Theologian R.C. Sproul said if you had to summarize Christian theology in one word, it would be “grace.” And if you had to summarize the Christian ethic and attitude towards life it should be “gratitude.”
The Apostle Paul says that our lives should “overflow with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:7), and that we should devote ourselves to prayer, “with an attitude of thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2).
One reason gratitude is so important is because it is a vital component of humility. Truly humble people are grateful people. They recognize who deserves the credit for everything in their lives. True heartfelt thanksgiving is a way in which we humble ourselves. Pride causes us to forget God while thanksgiving causes us to remember Him. Being thankful is a critical issue in our lives because the Bible is replete with the command to “Remember the Lord your God.”
The Wall Street Journal printed an article several years ago entitled, “Thanksgiving and Gratitude: The Science of Happier Holidays.” The authors relied on scientific research to come to their conclusions. What we learn from their research is:
People who are the most materialistic in our culture are very ungrateful and extremely unhappy. The relationship between materialism and gratitude run in the opposite direction. Ungrateful people are clearly unhappy people.
Gratitude acknowledges all the great benefits of life and enables us to savour all that is good in our lives.
Finally, and it should come as no surprise, a thankful heart is associated with a number of positive health benefits. Grateful people have stronger immune systems, report fewer symptoms of illness, and enjoy a better quality of sleep. They are also less reactive to stressful events.[2]
If you look at all the verses in the Bible where the word “ungrateful,” “ingratitude,” and “failing to give thanks” are used, you discover that ungratefulness is linked to godlessness and evil.
The Apostle Paul spells this out clearly in Romans 1:21 when he speaks of people who once knew God but have forgotten Him: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
People who forget God are ungrateful and foolish. This is true for nations as well as individuals. Warren Wiersbe says, “An ungrateful heart is fertile soil for all types of evil.”
Consider this? When was the last time you had to teach a child to be ungrateful? Their inherited sinful nature from Adam is often on full display. Children must be taught to be grateful. It's not an inherent quality we were born with. It doesn’t develop naturally either. It seems that some adults are in desperate need of learning that lesson too. Author Henri Nouwen shares how adults can learn to be grateful:
In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have are given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
Every morning I spend the first ten to fifteen minutes of the day giving thanks to God. I start by acknowledging all that I am and all that I have is a gift from Him and that I am grateful. I thank Him for the gift of life and for a new day. I thank Him for my health and for keeping me in this life (Psalm 66:9). I thank Him for my wife and our life together as well as for our three children. I thank Him for the other relationships He has blessed me with. I thank Him for our home and the financial resources He has provided us. I thank Him for the work He has called me to do and the talents and abilities he has blessed me with. I give thanks for all the spiritual blessings of life (Ephesians 1:3). Finally, I end by thanking Him for the incredible difference He has made in my life. Where would I be without Him? There is an Estonian proverb that says: “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” Acts of gratitude make one grateful because, step by step, they reveal that all is grace.[3]
I am convinced thanking God has made such a difference in my life. Over time I have found that it leads me to give thanks throughout the day as I recognize His good hand in all that I do. I have come to realize this not only pleases Him, but it has also transformed my life.
Today, as you read this blog, I cannot be certain of all you are experiencing at this moment. I know that some people think a thankful heart is only to be shown for the good times. But thanking God for his providential and caring guidance through difficult seasons of our lives, while difficult to do, is also extremely important.
In the fall of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued two landmark statements. The first was the famous Gettysburg Address in which Lincoln commemorated the battlefield of Gettysburg. The other statement, made just weeks before, may be a bit more surprising. On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln instituted the first official Thanksgiving holiday.
Lincoln wrote, “It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gracious gifts of the Most High God] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.” Thus, Lincoln set apart the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father.” Apparently, in the midst of the worst war their nation had ever seen, Lincoln thought the time was ripe for gratitude.
Some may be tempted to think Lincoln’s statement of gratitude was inappropriate, naïve, or even offensive. Reading the entire text of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, however, allows us to see that Lincoln had not forgotten about the Civil War. Lincoln candidly addressed the horrors of the Civil War, a war “of unequaled magnitude and severity” that had transformed tens of thousands of Americans into “widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife.” But he coupled this hardship with hope, recognizing the hand of God guiding him through the valley of the shadow of death.[5]
Conflict and gratitude. Hardship and hope. Lincoln wasn’t confused. He was seeing thanksgiving through a biblical lens. He was well aware of the verses from the Bible that enjoined him to be thankful, like Psalm 136:1, “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever; and "I Thess. 5:18, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
At this thanksgiving, I leave you with these words from Paul to the Colossians: "And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful."
Happy Thanksgiving!
[2] Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner, “Thanksgiving and Gratitude: The Science of Happier Holidays.” Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2014, https://www.wsj.com/articles/thanksgiving-and-gratitude-the-science-of-happier-holidays-1417183949.
[3]https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55b0fcd0e4b068ed2bbcf36b/t/583d9184bebafbc5c127d068/1480429957085/Nouwen+on+gratitude+Vintage+Fall+2016.pdf
[4] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Dt 8:10–19.
[5] Chris Pappalardo, “This Thanksgiving, I’m Thankful for Difficult People, “CT magazine (11-22-18)
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