Graduate 74: A Season of Thanksgiving

Some weeks back, my friend Michael visited me on a Thursday evening. We had dinner together and spent a couple hours talking about life and philosophy. (Pretty much the recipe for a perfect evening.) Ten minutes after he left, I realized that I had left one of my textbooks in his car. I needed that textbook for the next days class. It was already late in the evening so I would have to drive out early the next morning (sometime before rush-hour traffic) in order to pick it up from him at his home in Corona.

At first, I was (I think) understandably frustrated with myself and with the situation--the inconvenience to Michael and myself, the hassle of rising extra early, the worry about meeting up with him successfully.

But then I began to think about all the good things that I had that made possible just this kind of inconvenience. If I didn't have a friend like Michael--a close friend who I know cares about me, with whom I can talk about all sorts of things, a brother in Christ with whom I can pray--certainly I wouldn't be in this situation. If I wasn't taking classes at UC Riverside--if I hadn't been admitted to a doctoral program, with fellowships and stipends adequate to my needs--I wouldn't be in this situation. If I didn't have a car there wouldn't even be a question about the possibility of my driving out to Corona that next morning.

And would I ever think of giving up my friendship with Michael, my educational situation, and my car, just in order to avoid the inconvenience of driving out to Corona early one morning? There are people in this world wanting for the resources to be able to make such a trip as a necessary part of their lives. I am able to make the trip as a matter of convenience.

Isn't it funny that we have the luxury of living such crazy, complicated lives. That's right--the luxury. Probably the majority of people in the world are focusing on whether they can get food for the next day. I get to worry about how quickly I can pay off student-loans. Don't get me wrong; paying off student-loans is a big deal. But to fret and worry about it? It's in those rare moments of lucidity that that strikes me as just silly.

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Lord God, thank you for the luxury of being able to worry about student loan payments and philosophy essays and reading assignments and working out schedules for visiting friends. Thank you for that.

Now help me to knock it off. :-)

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If God provides for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, won't he provide for your and my needs? If he's taken care of food and clothing and shelter--all the necessary stuff--, do we really need to worry about all the un-necessary stuff?

Lord God, you have given me so much. Family and friends, food and shelter, transportation, money, education, skills. Help me not to lose sight of that.

And help me to be generous with what you've given me. Help me to not hold it close but to give freely of what you have freely given to me. Let gratitude bear fruit in joyful giving and sharing, in this and every season of thanksgiving.

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.