We are blessed that Williamson County is a beautiful place to drive around in the routine of our daily lives: working, meeting, ferrying the kids to and from. I pass this house frequently: a simple, well-kept home with a sign out front: “Thank You, Jesus.”
Three words tell me a lot about its occupants. They don’t tell me skin color, educational background, orientation… none of those things are particularly important to me in the judgment of someone’s character. I know that the family who lives there has suffered, is suffering in some way, or will endure suffering in the future, because that is the human condition. The inadequacy of our bodies, the tragedy of relationships, the iniquities of our own heart, the loss of loved ones. Through all the trials, the occupants of that home exercise gratitude and an acknowledgement from where their blessings come.
Gratitude is not the natural human condition. We’ve witnessed pockets of our society devolve into that most base human condition: tribalism. We’ve watched in horror as “protesters” destroy statues of the founding fathers and then pour out of smashed store windows clutching a Gucci bag or an air fryer from Target in the name of “social justice.” Eighty looters ransacked a San Francisco area Nordstrom last week. None of this indicates gratitude. For whatever reason, and there’s always a reason, these people are driven by tremendous bitterness about their circumstances in life.
A portion of our society has embraced entitlement over gratitude. They survey their lives and only see what they DON’T have. Enter an ideology that tells them the “patriarchy” or “structural racism” is to blame. This gives way to bitterness and a sense that society owes them. Whatever their circumstances, they live in the freest country in the world. They are a citizen under the United States Constitution, which guarantees their God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as well as their freedoms and equal justice under the law. That’s a start. In contrast, they won’t be executed by firing squad for the crime of watching a Netflix TV show, as a North Korean student was recently sentenced to. They won’t die in a Chinese concentration camp for believing in Allah. Heck, they likely won’t even be prosecuted for stealing.
All suffer. Sit on a bench in downtown Franklin and observe the passerby: shopping at Tin Cottage, treating their kids to ice cream at Kilwin’s, lunch with friends at Meridee’s, admiring the latest angel painting at DeAnn’s… Most all of them are enduring a trial or hardship of some sort. All of them have a choice to make: bitterness or gratitude? One is monumentally more difficult than the other. In the words of Jordan Peterson, gratitude requires courage.
When asked by Tucker Carlson which of his recently published, “12 More Rules to Live By,” was the most important, Dr. Peterson responded: “Be grateful in spite of your suffering.” Gratitude is the “adoption of a kind of voluntary courage in relationship to the troubles of life.” It requires humility and perspective.
Philosophers and pundits aside, what does the Bible say about gratitude? The King James version mentions the word “thank” 100 times. “Thanksgiving” accounts for 29 of those times. Jesus gave thanks to His Father in heaven for the bread and the wine, the loaves and the fish.
I Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus
Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
America is the only country with a national day dedicated toward gratitude and the act of thanksgiving. On October 3, 1789, George Washington penned a Thanskgiving Proclamation:
“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.” Full proclamation here.
Perhaps this is why the Left seeks to downplay, disparage and even mock this most unique of national holidays. If the looters paused for a moment, put down the Louis Vuitton bag and reflected on what they dohave, gave thanks, rejoiced in their blessings despite their trials…what a different country this would be. We might actually UNIFY under a common citizenship in a country blessed by God. The Left wants no part in that, and that’s why a Google search for “Thanskgiving” yields an article from the once-great Smithsonian titled “The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage.” The Left does not want you to choose gratitude, because gratitude for what you have diminishes your fear and resentment of what you do not have. If that happened, the engine powering their ideology would stop.
All of these ruminations about Thanksgiving aside, I return to the quaint house with the simple and perfect display of gratitude in the front yard. What if more houses across Williamson County put this sign out front? Faith as small as a mustard seed, a single sign in a front yard, can change the world. I am grateful to them for their courage in gratitude, because it impacted my life by inspiring me to whisper a prayer of gratitude as I drove past.
If you would like a copy of this sign for your own front yard, email your address to [email protected]. I will gladly drop one off for you. Let this house, this family, be the mustard seed. Let us all choose gratitude and give thanks today.
I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving.