In just a few days the annual tradition of Thanksgiving will be upon the people of America. A celebration of bounty occurs in many areas of the world, called by different names. This year I plan to celebrate the truth rather than the reality of Thanksgiving. Straightforwardly I will celebrate with increased understanding of Thanksgiving—reality and truth.

According to United States history, seventy-five years before the 1941 establishment of the third Thursday of November as a National Holiday for giving thanks, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Thanksgiving. In the stirring document, as the Civil War continued to take lives,  he urged, “… to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Reality

The reality of Thanksgiving today includes:

• Football games
• “Black Friday” sales (many ending in customer brawls over bargains)
• Overindulgence in food
• Overindulgence in alcoholic beverages
• Bickering families coming together to, promote and create new emotive, interactions

What has happened? Into what have we evolved?

The reality of the times we live in has less reverence for the family structure. Diminished investment in our precious, dear children. Ancestors are regarded more like out-of-date fashion to be placed in the over-run landfill. Conversations mutilating the character of others abound. Rules and laws are bent to the point that they resemble pretzels. Regard for authority figures has bottomed out.

“Reality TV” and dramas are so polluted with sex and violence, one can sit on the sofa and experience the raw passions of love making and the visceral experience of killing another human being all before 10:00 PM!

Does anyone recognize that when we rehearse these acts repeatedly that changes take place in our bodies; chemical changes?

To what end? Do we become so desensitized that we seek more of this same behavior in our daily lives believing it to be reality, or normal?

Recent news reports of individuals accused, charged or convicted of egregious acts of sex and violence abound!

Spend time with any child, from any neighborhood in any city. You will see that their knowledge of the world consists mostly of information that they are ill-equipped to appropriately process. Leaving them vulnerable to all sorts of negative outcomes.

There are wars and rumors of wars. There is pestilence.  There are earthquakes in diverse places. There are famines and troubles. This is the state of our reality.  Chapter 13 of the book of Matthew, records a time when Jesus the Christ discusses these events with Peter, James, John and Andrew, on the Mount of Olives.

Reality is the tangible experience shared by others. Depending on the environment, reality will and does change.

Truth

Truth, is certainty. Exact, constant and with conformity to immutable laws.

In the book of John 8:32 and 14:6 (KJV) we see the following:

Chapter 8 Verse 32

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Chapter 14 Verse 6

“…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John continues to instruct us about the truth in his writings in verses 23 and 24 of Chapter 4, where we are told that true worshippers worship in spirit and in truth.

Thanksgiving—Reality and Truth

Then even when we think about giving thanks to the Righteous, Immutable God, there is a way acceptable to Him, that He has revealed to us.

As that time of Thanksgiving appears on the U.S. calendar, this coming Thursday, and we face the reality of our individual recognition of the day, my prayer is that we will all operate in the truth the Apostle Paul conveyed through a letter he wrote to the church at Thessalonica found here:

“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.” (II Thessalonians 5:16-18, The Message Version)

Whether you decide to have Vegan turkey, watch football, stand in line for “Black Friday” deals, or spend time in the presence of loving family. BE THANKFUL that things are as well as they are. Pray according to God’s will.

If your reality needs to be overhauled to operate in His truth, be prepared to undergo the renovation process, giving thanks while under construction.

Take Inventory and Take Action!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love,

Deborah

“Lighting the path to loving your neighbor as yourself.”