Gratitude Check

On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, the congregation at Good Shepherd heard a lesson from Deuteronomy 6. Moses is urging the Israelites, once they have entered the promised land, and built fine houses and lived in them, and multiplied flocks and grains and gold and silver, not to forget that all these things are a gift from God. Be careful, Moses said, enjoy these things that God has given, all the future things God has promised, but do not forget the God who brought you through hard times: slavery, liberation, wandering in the desert, times when you were strangers in a strange land and were sustained.

This led us to do a different kind of gratitude check: not just thanking God, or the universe, or life, or each other, for the good times, but also for carrying us through hard times we never would have chosen. I offer it as one way to start the holiday season.

Think of your birth. You didn’t choose the era of history, your parents, your social, economic, political, religious circumstances—they were given. You didn’t choose your physical characteristics: good health or poor, your genetic inheritance, the way you look and move and live. What gifts sustained, nurtured you; helped you not just survive, but thrive? What limitations did you have to overcome, and who helped you move through them? Give thanks for all that helped you become the person you would like to be, and for overcoming the barriers that seemed insurmountable at the time.

Think of your land. What were the gifts of culture, heritage, material resources that you inherited? What political, economic, social systems favored you? Give thanks.  And what about those that didn’t favor you, that kept you from access to resources you needed, in this country or any other? If you emigrated to the United States, what benefits have you found? And what barriers, and who helped you overcome them? What strengths have you discovered in the struggle? What keeps you going? Give thanks.

Think of what you have done with all the gifts you been given: the ways you love people, the skills you have developed, the home you have created, the adventures you have had, the help you have offered, the legacy you will leave? Give thanks for the ways you have multiplied what you received. And then, what about the things you always wanted to have, but that weren’t given to you? That you couldn’t achieve, no matter how hard you worked? What strengths did you develop along the way, what other doors opened, how has life changed as you move through resentment to acceptance?

And finally, think of how you will share these gifts with others—give thanks for times when giving comes easily, and for times when it seems you had nothing to give and gave anyway, and for ways you have been fulfilled in giving, and for ways you have received more life than you could ever have imagined.

Happy Thanksgiving!