As Americans our gratitude
list is long. Perhaps, it’s one of
the longest lists in history. Hot showers and well-stocked grocery stores are
amazing.
Feeling gratitude is mood enhancing and good psychology
although it isn’t the purpose of thanksgiving. Gifts, which most impacted my
life, never filled me with gratitude.
Braces, tenth grade, and rowing practice come to mind. These three things improved me, but I
rarely felt thankful when I
couldn’t chew gum or studied Modern World History or woke up at 4:45am. I never thanked God for the opportunity
to have a corrected overbite or read primary texts or participate in Title IX
athletics.
It’s about to whom you give
thanks. I fall into an
uncomfortable mishmash of self-congratulation and sense of entitlement when I’m
not focused on God as the giver of things good. My life starts being all about
me. The value of my job, my
friends, and my hobbies decreases as each becomes an obstacle to my
self-actualization.
Appreciating God as the cause
of all my thanks grounds me. It’s
about God. Of course, this
statement begs the question of situations of unemployment, cancer, infertility,
natural disasters, and all other struggles. This essay is far too simple to address this theological
complexity. However, I thank God for his goodness and power as mysterious and
beyond my ability to understand as they are. Thanking and praising God reorient me to reality—the reality
that’s much bigger and far beyond me. Thank God.
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