Thanksgiving weekend is over and by now you are hopefully back into your typical routine at work. It is always amazing to me at how fast the holidays move bye. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving Day and before you know it, we are almost a week past it. We are now officially in December and Christmas is only 23 days away.  Unbelievable! Hopefully you were able to spend some great time with your family and friends like we did, but if not, it was still a day set aside to give thanks. I remember as we were together how many times I just paused to thank God for His goodness to me and to my family. I have this mental list that I work my way through where I am reminded of how to pray for people, but this past weekend was more focused on thanksgiving. For some of you, that list was put away Thursday afternoon and the Black Friday shopping list replaced it. In years past, we would get up pretty early to get out before anyone else to get the deals, but not this year. I was usually the chauffeur and I enjoyed watching people clammer for the hot gift for this year and then think about how in just a few short months, the “specialness” of that purchase was history. It was comical at times to see what people would do to get that special deal. People had their lists in hand and they would develop a plan of attack with the help of their 4 and 5 year-old kids standing in lines or carrying packages. 

This year was quite different for us.  We did not do the Black Friday thing this year. Without a doubt, Covid had a lot to do with that, but there just was not the excitement and anticipation that there once was. I cannot really explain the reasoning for that, and I am not complaining at all.  We were busy and we had a different list this year; a list of things to do. For some of you, the list changed from a list of thanksgiving to a list of “things” and “stuff” that you needed to get. I keep lists on my phone and one of the most gratifying things is to put a “check mark” next to my most recent accomplishment on my “To Do” list but then I always seem to add something else to it. There is one list that I don’t think I have ever been able to put a check mark next to, and that is my list of thanksgiving. Have you completed your list? Is it possible to ever complete that list? How many of us have moved on from our list of things and people that we were thankful for on Thanksgiving Day and moved on to our shopping list or “To Do” list or needs list? You do know that your actions do speak louder than your words, right? How many things on your thanksgiving list is it ok to put a check mark next to and move on? I read a devotional yesterday that I receive every morning written by Charles Spurgeon. Here is a portion of it:
If we complained less and were more thankful, we would be happier, and God would be more glorified. Every day thank God for ordinary mercies—we refer to them as ordinary, and yet they are so priceless that without them we are ready to perish. Let us thank God for our eyes with which we see the sun, for the health and strength to walk around, for the bread we eat, for the clothes we wear. Let us thank Him that we are not among the hopeless or confined among the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts. Let us praise Him, in fact, for everything that we receive from His generous hand, for although we deserve little, He provides an abundance. 

The ordinary stuff, like your eyes?  Do you think that a blind man would call sight ordinary? Do you think someone battling a terminal sickness would call health and strength ordinary? Do you think that a starving child in Haiti would call food and clothing ordinary? Do you think that that friend of yours who has been unemployed for an extended period of time would call a job like yours ordinary? Do you think that the warm house and warm bed that you will come home to tonight would be ordinary to someone at the Peoria Rescue Mission? Are you getting the picture? Are you ready to check the ordinary off of your list of thanksgiving? Spurgeon goes on to say: “The sweetest and loudest note in or thankful songs should be of redeeming love…If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our hymns of thanksgiving.” WOW! Have we forgotten about that?

I challenge each of you, as you pray today, to spend your entire time in thanksgiving.  Make a list.  Make a mental list. Make a list of all of the things that you are thankful for and then pray it back to God. Tell Him thank you. He knows what you will need today before you will, so just thank Him for what He has done and for what He will do. Psalm 107:8 “Let them thank the LORD for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man!” (ESV)

Make that list, check it twice, and then pray and give thanks at the top of your lungs!