Afternoon Tea: Thanksgiving

From one of my favorite movies of all time...

Turkey Day is not too far off, and besides Christmas it's my favorite holiday. Food, family, and football; it can't get much better than that. For some reason, on Thanksgiving Day, all worries are appeased and all burdens are set aside, if even momentarily. It's the one day where complaining goes out the door and in it's place are words of thanks, joy, and encouragement as families commune together and friends count their blessings.

What if we had an attitude of thanks every day? It's easy to rejoice when our lives seem to be overflowing with positivity, but how do we respond when it's just the opposite? When the weight of the world is on our shoulders, how do we react? Giving thanks does not come so easily then. However, if we had a true understanding of the gospel and the nature of Christ, we would be rejoicing all the more through the trials. Hardships in this life are evidence that this world is a broken one, but the message of Christ is that there is a hope.

Colossians 1: 10-14 reads, And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption for the forgiveness of sins'.

I mean, that passage says it all. Christ has come so that we may live a life worthy of Him. We are called to please Him during the high times and the low, and in pressing deeper into Him in the midst of trials we are strengthened. Through Him we have patience and endurance. Does this mean we skip around singing as if life were a musical every second of every day? I actually wouldn't mind that one bit...I love musicals. That's hardly realistic, though, and our human emotions in hard times are normal and OKAY. The question though is this: how do we respond? Do we complain against the Lord, or do we cry out to Him? Do we let the evil one steal our joy, or do we press deeper into Christ to find the fullness of it? The influence and destructive power Satan and sin have over the world, broken only through the authority of Christ, is what is meant by, 'the dominion of darkness'. Christians can fall prey to the darkness, but this is the great hope: we don't have to. In Christ, we have the resources to overcome this world. What better reason do we have to rejoice? When I dwell on this truth, I realize that I have no reason to complain, because when this world fails me, I still have Jesus, and for his sufficient grace I am forever thankful.