A MONTH OF GIVING THANKS

Yes, I agree with you…THIS YEAR WAS TOUGH!

Everyone is angry at everyone! The election is nasty, and no matter who wins, half the country will be angry.  Everything cost  more. Travel is still tough. You can’t trust the media.  The world is at war, Israel is fighting for its survival, Ukraine is still fighting, but is almost an afterthought. Most families are trying to make ends meet while our leaders pay no attention.

You have one side yelling about January 6, systemic racism and abortion, and the other side answering with controlling the border, crime and inflation. Is anyone listening?

Still, as the Bible says, “In all things, give thanks”.

Remember, it doesn’t say “for” all things, but “in” all things. There is a big difference. I mean, I don’t have to thank God for Gavin Newsome driving California into the ground with his policies that have driven up gas prices, home prices, made the state unsafe and difficult to run a business with a giant sign that reads “This way to Texas and Florida”. But, I can still BE thankful.

The point is, God doesn’t need our thanks.

But, WE need to be thankful; it does something for us be be thankful people. It puts life here on earth, and eternity, into  perspective

Think we’re living in a bad time now? During the COVID lockdown, I read the 3300 page The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It covered the years 95 BC to 1453, the fall of Constantinople

In the Bible,  Daniel. (remember the Lion’s Den?) lives over 70 years in exile under four, count ’em, four terrible pagan leaders. One of them, Cyrus, allows the temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and the Israelites to return to their land. But Daniel stays? Is he dreaming again? No, he knows where he’s supposed to end his days, and keeps life in eternal perspective with a closing verse to his book,

What did  he Iearn that we should learn? Things are ALWAYS bad; the rare time is when things are good. That’s why we need this holiday!

 Why do we give Thanksgiving such short shrift? Usually we associate it with overeating and immediately falling asleep or taking in a bunch of football games (this year with cardboard fans). But thankfulness is one of the greatest qualities to have, as it means you realize how blessed you are. My theory is that if you have 1) peace with God 2) bread on the table 3) a roof over your head 4) a family who loves and respects you 5) a good reputation among your peers and 6) 4 good friends, then you’re ahead of 95% of the people on earth. If you’re not there yet, start working on this list! Still, the fact that you are still here above the ground means that there is still some hope for you.

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I enjoy praying, and make it a daily habit. However, on Saturdays, I just spend time running through the week’s events and thanking God for each event, or at least giving me the strength to get through them. It’s my way of giving God “the day off” from my problems. He probably likes a word of appreciation from His creation. Try it some time, and see how it affects your music and attitude!

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 Are there things to complain about? Of course! But think about the past week. What bad things COULD have happened to you that didn’t! You could have been born in poverty, in a country where you’d be an “outcaste” or even as a slave. You could have been born in Stockton! Things could always be worse; by the grace of God, there go I. As long as you’re alive, and there’s a God who interacts with us, there’s hope!

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So, as we’ve done in the past, we’ll list some major reasons to be thankful…

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1) We have Someone to thank! Can you imagine if there were no God? Who would be be grateful to? Aardvarks? Even worse-ourselves? Scary thought!

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2) In America, the pilgrims DID NOT come here in 1620 for religious freedom, as most of the textbooks dictate. If you read the historical records of William Bradford, who came over on the Mayflower and was our first governor and historian, he states the reason was to make this country a Christian nation. Now, you may not like that fact, but Abe Lincoln once met with an ambassador from South America, and when asked the diplomat the difference between the two continents, he was told, “Our explorers came for gold; yours came for God, and that’s that made all the difference in destinies.”

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3) Don’t like your religion? You can change it in America to whatever you want! Try doing that in Saudi Arabia, India or Pakistan! We have freedoms other people can’t even dream of! Last year, we had a lady from Egypt staying with us under asylum because she dared to have two of her fellow doctors convert from Islam to Christianity.

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4) After he served two terms,  George Washington stepped down as President of the United States, and John Adams walked up to take his place. No coups, no bloodshed, no army showdown. The fact that our government can change that easily is a true gift from God. How’d you like to have the Assad family or Vladmir Putin for your leaders?!?

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5) Don’t like the government? Change it! When I was in Malawi back in the 80s, I was in a restaurant and asked the waiter “What’s going to happen when President Banda dies?” The place got quiet as a church, and the waiter had his eyes as big as saucers. “Please, sir, do not say these things,” he pleaded. “It’s not legal to discuss politics in this country.” Quit your belly aching!

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6) Is our past perfect? Obviously, no-we’re sinful people! But even with things like slavery and civil rights, we look for where we fall short and work on correcting them. We fought a war to free the slaves. Brazil also had slaves, and they didn’t have to worry about freeing them because they killed them all. We have changed laws and hearts over equal rights for people, and do it by appealing to God, not to guns. Name another country that does that! Everyone gets to vote here. Tell THAT to the people of Zimbabwe, where they joke, “One person, one vote, one time.” And let’s not forget that bastion of Socialism, Venezuela, where a once oil exporter now needs to import for food. Capitalism works!

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7) Even with the disastrous “Affordable (ha ha) Care Act” we still have the best medical care in the world. I’ve practiced and lived in other countries. In Italy, you wait ALL DAY to see someone for 2 minutes. And don’t get me started about Canada’s “perfect” health plan. My mother’s side of the family lived there, and left because the health care was such a disaster. I do medical missionary work all over the world, and although the world dislikes our politics, they come in droves for American doctors. Why? We tell the truth! What a concept! Besides, have we ever lived longer than any other time in American history?

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8) We don’t even realize it, but even with all of the crazy changes in airports and airlines we are in a GOLDEN AGE OF TRAVEL. Think about, even 50 years ago, how difficult or time consuming it was to go anywhere in the world. 100 years ago, you essentially knew about your town and maybe a 25 mile circumference. Now, you can go ANYWHERE in the world in 24 hours, and at essentially 1/100th of your income. It’s simply mind boggling! I go on medical mission trips, and can go from my home in Southern California to Nag Hammadi Egypt in 36 hours! A century ago it would have taken 36 MONTHS!!!

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9) Not only is it a “Golden Age” of travel, but it’s a GOLDEN AGE OF AUTOMOBILES! When I was a teenager, it was a big deal if a car made it to 100,000 miles. Now, 250K is the norm, and not to mention 200 hp, air conditioning, 25 mpg (when I was lucky to get 12 with my 67 Chevy), and an amazing sound system. Remember chintzy cassette tapes? Now you get anything you want anytime in the comfort of your car. Today’s Honda Civic would beat the daylights out of yesterday’s Corvette. Why isn’t anyone celebrating this? Yes, they are hard to come by, but just about anything you get is going to last a LONG time.

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10) Also, in this day of computers, it is definitely a GOLDEN AGE OF MUSIC. Back in the 1970s, you had to go to a record store, and they MIGHT have what you want to listen to, and there just wasn’t much available. Today, you can get a cd, spotify or mp3 of music that was completely unknown of and unreleased back then. Obscure recordings by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington etc are easily available to us.

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11) The same for movies. It used to be that if you wanted to see an old movie like Casablanca, you either had to go to a special theater that showed “Vintage” films (like Santa Monica’s Nuart), or you had to wait for reruns with a ton of commercials on TV’s “Million Dollar Movie”. Today you can get anything from vintage film noir like He Walked  By Night or foreign films such as Tokyo Story. Not only that, but now you can find out the locations of  your favorite films were with the press of a button. Hey! Let’s go see where John Wayne dragged Maureen O’Hara in The Quiet Man!

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12) No matter how poor you are, what family you came from, whatever your religion is, you have a fighting chance to do as well as you’re willing to work in the US. No caste system like in India, where you’re stuck impoverished the rest of your life, or like in the Middle East where your last name dictates if you’re going to be hired for a job. It’s based on performance here in the states. While the news always harps about the “10% living below the poverty line,” what is not mentioned is that the people that were living in squalor 10  years ago are now in the middle and upper classes. Most of the  “new poor” are people recently entering this country for the simple reason they know they have a fighting chance to increase their lot in life. What a joy!

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13) What other country can someone who grows up poor, or comes from another country with nothing but the clothes on his or  her back, work hard and actually change their status, going from lower to middle to upper in one or two generations? I just finished reading a bio of Satchel Paige, and it’s a story, like so many others, that “could only happen in America.” Let’s not forget that Booker T. Washington’s autobiography is titled Up From Slavery. If you’re not doing well, it’s not because of something that happened over 100  years ago; you can change your trajectory, just as Booker T did.

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14) Want a drink of water? Put your lips up to a fountain for free! Try doing that almost anywhere else, and run to the nearest toilet!

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15) We live in the country that has given  us Gershwin, Ellington, Miles, Monk, Ella, Cash, Charles, Berry, BB King, Muddy Waters…how long a list do you want?

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 16) Disagree with your relatives over the Thanksgiving meal? Great! No one has to get shot! I have tons of friends on Facebook that I vehemently argue with about politics and religion, but can still end with “Hey, what about those Dodgers!”

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17) Hey, if you’ve GOT relatives be thankful. Got a great wife, two wonderful daughters, two great sons-in-law and five wonderful granddaughters, and one more on the way, and it’s a BOY! May baseball card collection finally has a home! And there’s nothing like having a granddaughter that pushes my daughter around like she used to do to us. God’s revenge!  And I have a  wife who tolerates me!

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18) Can you read? Walk? Move? See? Hear? Breath and swallow without straining? Quit complaining! You can taste pizza, pasta, gyros, Thai food and buttered popcorn! Not to mention Pinks’ hot dogs and the colon purging Tommy’s Burgers!

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19)      We’ve liberated more countries than you can count. What would France, Korea, England and Poland be, just to name a few, without our help?

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20 ) In my family we’ve got whites, blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Christians and agnostics. As we like to say, “the problem isn’t skin, but sin.”  We all get along, and have a blast ripping each other-what other country could boast that?

 

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22) We always think that the world is getting worse. I’ll prove to you with ONE WORD that the world that we live in is improving over the years, and we just have to be reminded—DENTISTRY

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24) We tend to think that we’re  living in “the worst time ever”. Well, I just finished reading Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and realized that it’s ALWAYS the worst time ever. Also, as DIckens famously said, “the best of times”

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23)  Happy Thanksgiving!