Thanksgiving

I thought today it would be appropriate to write something profound.  After all, it is a special day for most families.  It is the day we come together and share.  It is a day that we partake of the culinary delights of the season (I'm referring here to the pies -- I'm not a big fan of turkey).  It is a day in which we gather around the television and watch football.

When I was a kid, Thanksgiving always meant quail hunting.  Quail are my absolute favorite game bird -- both for hunting and for eating.  I think of quail as Biblical.  They certainly helped to feed the wandering Israelites for 40 years.

It is also the day of the big rivalry game between Texas A&M and t.u. (that's the University of Texas for all you non-Aggies).  This is the last year for that rivalry game.  When t.u. got greedy with the television rights, the rest of the conference went looking for a better deal.  After all, college football is big business and the revenue to the schools is huge.  A&M's move to the SEC was about the money -- television rights -- and what it would put into the coffers of the school.

In 2009 I went to Niger.  In January of this year I went to Kenya.  I have been to inner-city America and I have seen the poverty of the southern border.  Yet, here we sit in our abundance, over-eating, watching football (which is all about the money) and never thinking of those elsewhere who are struggling to feed themselves and their children.

I know today is about giving thanks, yet, I wonder if we are giving thanks for the right things.  We thank God for our many blessings, but, I have to ask, do we really understand what it means to be blessed by God?  It isn't about material possessions.  It is about Jesus who provides a way for us to escape the corruption of this world.  If God places an abundance of material possessions in our care it is so that we can help meet the needs of others who don't have such.  Those possessions aren't the blessing, it is the trust He places in us to use them for the work of His Kingdom that is the blessing.  If we fail to do so, we have succumbed to the corruption of this world and those possessions are no longer the source of blessing but, become a curse and a condemnation of our life.  After all, it's not about us (me), it is about Him (Jesus).

But, we make excuses and we justify our behavior.  I'm no different.  I think this year I'll use another Biblical reference.  My son is home from college.  No, he's not a prodigal, but, I think it is a great excuse since he is home to have a celebration.  It's time to kill the fattened calf -- er, turkey and ham and potatoes and green bean casserole and on and on and on......

Feeling a little guilty.....

Chris