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Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000031S
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00:00 - It's Thanksgiving season,
00:01 which of course is a lot of people's favorite holiday. 00:05 Even though if we're really honest about this, 00:07 a lot of us have actually forgotten how to be thankful, 00:10 so today on Authentic, recovering the lost art of gratitude. 00:16 [upbeat music] 00:36 So here we are, 00:38 it's Thanksgiving season here in the United States, 00:41 and I know I didn't say anything about Canadian Thanksgiving 00:44 when it was October, 00:45 so listen, my apologies to those of you living 00:48 on the north side of the 49th parallel. 00:50 I just hope you can still pull something useful 00:53 out of today's subject, just use it next October. 00:57 Today I thought it would be nice to take a little break 00:59 from some of the heavier subject matter 01:01 that we usually talk about 01:02 and maybe just think about the fine art of gratitude, 01:05 because, well, the practice of thankfulness 01:08 seems to be a bit of a lost art here in the modern west, 01:11 especially in recent history. 01:14 I mean, think about this, 01:15 here we are one of the most privileged nations 01:17 in the history of the world, 01:19 and certainly one of the wealthiest, 01:21 and I can testify firsthand as an immigrant, 01:24 an naturalized American that we have 01:27 an awful lot to be thankful for here, 01:30 and yet, in some ways I had never heard so much in gratitude 01:36 as I have in recent years in a place 01:37 where people actually have more to be thankful for 01:39 than many other parts of the world. 01:41 I mean, I know, I know America has problems 01:44 and it's certainly not a utopia, 01:47 but at the same time we should probably not forget 01:49 that we really have more than most, we really do. 01:53 I remember years ago crossing the border 01:55 into the United States, and back in those days, 01:57 I was still down here on a work visa. 02:00 The border agent looked at my passport and said, 02:02 "Well, I guess you'll be applying 02:03 "for a green card any day now." 02:05 I said, 02:05 "Maybe, I don't know, 02:07 "I don't know what the future holds." 02:08 Oh, he said, 02:09 "You'll be staying. 02:10 "Once you see what we have here, 02:12 "you're gonna wanna live here for good." 02:15 Now, of course as a citizen of another country, 02:18 my pride was a little bit wounded because 02:20 the standard of living in my country is really pretty good. 02:23 I mean, how dare he suggests that America 02:26 might have something more to offer me? 02:29 But you know something? 02:30 It turns out in a lot of ways, he was right. 02:32 I've personally discovered that America 02:34 really is a land of opportunity. 02:37 Personally I found it much easier 02:38 to get ahead in this country, at least back in those days, 02:41 and I was amazed by just how much access Americans have 02:45 to just about anything they want. 02:47 Now, again, that's not to suggest that my home country 02:50 is some kind of backwater where the living is hard 02:52 because that's not true either, 02:55 I come from a really good place to live 02:57 and a lot of people love to live there, 03:00 and still I couldn't help, 03:01 but notice just how much you have here in America. 03:04 This really is one of the most prosperous nations 03:08 in the history of the planet, probably the most prosperous, 03:12 and yet at the same time as I listened to a lot of 03:14 my new American neighbors talk about their country, 03:17 I heard a lot of complaining about 03:19 just how bad they thought everything was. 03:22 And in some ways I found that misdefined because 03:25 as people complained about politics, and the economy, 03:29 and the state of society, and a million other things, 03:32 they were also complaining about how many people 03:34 were trying to sneak across the border 03:36 into this country every single day. 03:38 Somehow those two things don't compute. 03:41 If life in America is really as horrible as some people say, 03:44 then why would so many people be willing 03:46 to risk everything to get here? 03:49 It doesn't add up. 03:51 And again, I am not gonna suggest 03:53 there isn't room for improvement, 03:55 or that we don't have some serious problems 03:57 because obviously we do, 03:59 but now that it's Thanksgiving, 04:01 I thought maybe for just a few moments, even just one day, 04:04 you and I could try to recover the fine art of gratitude, 04:08 because as it turns out, gratitude is something 04:11 that doesn't come naturally to most of us, 04:14 surprisingly, it's something you have to practice. 04:17 Human nature being what it is, 04:19 it seems like we have this tendency to gravitate 04:21 more toward discontentment than we do toward contentment. 04:26 And a state of constant discontent 04:28 will almost always give you a miserable existence. 04:32 So the question we need to ask ourselves 04:35 in light of the fact that none of us 04:37 gets more than a few short years on this planet, 04:40 the question is, why in the world would anybody 04:43 want to live a miserable life 04:45 when there's a much, much better alternative? 04:49 I'm reminded of a story in the Bible 04:51 where this group of men suddenly approaches Jesus 04:54 and they have a very serious problem. 04:56 All of them are outcasts from society, 04:59 and the reason they're outcast is because they have leprosy. 05:02 Now, back in that day, it was an incurable disease 05:05 and it was also transmissible. 05:08 So it meant that victims had to be run out of town 05:11 to go live somewhere else in a leper colony. 05:14 That was the only option available to them. 05:16 And I mean, talk about social distancing, 05:18 if these people ever came near another group, 05:21 they had to announce their presence by crying out, 05:24 "Unclean, unclean," 05:26 so that people could get out of the way 05:27 and save themselves. 05:29 I mean, we think the current pandemic is inconvenient, 05:32 but imagine having a deadly disease 05:34 that completely isolates you 05:36 from the rest of civilization forever. 05:39 There was no coming home, 05:42 and there was no cell phone, no Zoom, you were out. 05:45 So here's the story as you find it in the Gospel of Luke 17. 05:51 It says, 05:52 "Now it happened as He," 05:53 That's talking about Jesus. 05:54 "Went to Jerusalem 05:56 "that He through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 05:59 "Then as He entered a certain village, 06:01 "there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off." 06:07 Now of course they had to stand a far off because 06:09 they had a deadly contagious disease. 06:11 So here they have a legitimate problem, 06:14 something to be legitimately unhappy about. 06:17 It continues in verse 13. 06:20 "And they lifted up their voices and said, 06:22 "'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!' 06:25 "So when He saw them, He said to them, 06:27 "'Go, show yourselves to the priests.'" 06:30 Because you see, in order to be restored to society 06:33 and declared healthy, 06:34 it required an examination from a priest. 06:38 "And so it was," it says, 06:39 "that as they went, they were cleansed." 06:43 Now, if we had more time, 06:45 there are all kinds of little details 06:46 in this story we could look at, 06:48 things like the fact that God really cares 06:51 about human suffering and He notices when you're hurting. 06:55 Or we could study the fact that these guys 06:58 apparently had to start walking 07:00 in the direction of the priest in order to be healed, 07:03 which teaches us something about the nature of faith. 07:07 It's more of an active process than passive. 07:10 But for Thanksgiving, just for now, 07:12 let's zero in on what happens next, this is verse 15. 07:16 It says, 07:17 "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned." 07:21 You know, it almost sounds like he turned around 07:22 as soon as he knew he was better 07:24 before he ever got to the priest. 07:26 "And with a loud voice glorified God, 07:29 "and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. 07:33 "And he was a Samaritan." 07:36 Now that last phrase is not just a passing comment. 07:41 Just in case some of the culture of the biblical world 07:43 might be new to some of you, 07:45 lemme just take a moment and explain what a Samaritan was. 07:48 Back when the Assyrian Empire 07:50 attacked the 10 northern tribes 07:52 and took those people captive, 07:53 they repopulated the region with a bunch of outsiders 07:57 they brought in from other parts of their empire. 07:59 And over time because of these people's proximity 08:02 to the tribe of Judah to the south of them, 08:05 these new outsiders kinda developed 08:07 their own version of the Jewish faith. 08:10 They had their own sacred mountain, 08:11 their own version of the Scriptures, 08:13 and their own religious rituals. 08:16 But as far as the religious authorities 08:17 in Jerusalem were concerned, 08:20 the Samaritans were a little better than Gentiles. 08:22 In fact, I guess they really were Gentiles. 08:25 And so Jerusalem considered these people 08:27 to be ritually unclean. 08:30 When the Babylonian captivity ended 08:32 and the tribe of Judah came back home to rebuild Jerusalem, 08:35 they actually refused to let the Samaritans participate 08:39 in the reconstruction of the temple, 08:41 so the Samaritans went and built their own. 08:44 People traveling from Jerusalem would go out of their way 08:48 to avoid traveling through the region of Samaria 08:50 if there was any other conceivable way 08:52 they could get to their destination because 08:55 they didn't want to set foot 08:56 on what they considered to be unclean territory. 09:01 So this one leper, the Samaritan was somebody 09:04 that most of Jesus' followers considered to be unclean 09:08 even if he didn't have leprosy, 09:10 but to make matters worse, he did have this dreaded disease, 09:13 and so I guess in some ways we could say, 09:15 this man was considered doubly unclean, 09:18 and yet out of the 10 lepers that Jesus healed that day, 09:22 this is the only guy who came back to say thanks. 09:26 He's the only one. 09:28 It continues now in verse 17, 09:31 "So Jesus answered and said, 09:34 "'Were they're not ten cleansed? 09:36 "'But where are the nine? 09:38 "'Were they're not found any who returned 09:39 "'to give glory to God except this foreigner?'" 09:43 Notice now how Jesus recognizes this man's outside status, 09:48 and well, that's for the benefit 09:50 of those who are watching what's happening. 09:52 "And He,' it says, 'Jesus said to him,' 09:54 "'Arise, go your way. 09:57 "'Your faith has made you well.'" 09:59 So here's what we've gotten in this story, 10:02 even though it doesn't really say it, 10:04 I think we can probably assume 10:06 that the other nine lepers were not Samaritans, 10:10 they probably came from a more privileged class, 10:14 and yet the only one, 10:15 the only one who actually practiced gratitude 10:19 was the outsider. 10:20 The man who had less to be thankful for than all the rest. 10:25 And that might just be a really important lesson for us, 10:28 some of the most privileged people 10:30 who have ever lived on the face of this planet. 10:33 I'll be right back after this. 10:36 [light music] 10:37 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 10:39 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 10:42 but that's where the Bible comes in, 10:45 it's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 10:48 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 10:49 we've created the Discover Bible Guides 10:52 to be your guide to the Bible. 10:53 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 10:56 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 10:59 and they're absolutely free. 11:01 So jump online now or give us a call 11:03 and start your journey of discovery. 11:07 - You know, I wish I could just remember all of the details, 11:10 but I remember listening to the radio a few years ago, 11:13 really decades ago and I heard this guy who, 11:16 if I remember this correctly, didn't have any feet, 11:19 and he was forced into a life of begging. 11:23 And again, if I'm remembering this correctly, 11:25 he also had some additional health challenges 11:27 that made his life really unpleasant. 11:29 He had nothing going right. 11:32 And somebody was talking to him on the radio, 11:34 I think it might've even been one of those 11:37 on the street interviews, and they asked this guy, 11:39 "Why are you so happy? 11:41 "What are you happy about?" 11:43 And that's when this man started to recite a poem, 11:45 and fortunately, I remember just enough lines 11:48 from this poem to be able to track it down 11:50 and bring it in today. 11:52 Some of you have probably heard this 11:53 at some point in your lives, 11:54 but I think it really bears repeating. 11:56 It's by John Paul Moore, 11:59 at least the version that I found online in, 12:01 and instead of hearing this in my voice, 12:03 I want you to imagine the voice of a homeless man, 12:06 somebody begging on a street corner 12:08 because that's the way I heard this. 12:11 So when they asked this guy, 12:12 how in the world he could be happy, 12:14 here's how he responded by saying this, 12:16 "I've never made a fortune, and I'll never make one now, 12:19 "but it really doesn't matter 'cause I'm happy anyhow. 12:23 "As I go along my journey, 12:24 "I'm reaping better than I've sowed, 12:26 "I'm drinking from the saucer 'cause my cup has overflowed. 12:30 "I don't have a lot of riches 12:31 "and some times the going's tough, 12:34 "but with kin and friends to love me, 12:35 "I think I'm rich enough. 12:38 "I thank God for the blessings that His mercy has bestowed, 12:41 "I'm drinking from the saucer 'cause my cup has overflowed. 12:46 "He gives me strength and courage 12:47 "when the way grows steep and rough. 12:50 "I'll not ask for other blessings 12:51 "for I'm already blessed enough. 12:53 "May we never be too busy to help bear another's load, 12:57 "then we'll all be drinking from the saucer 12:59 "when our cups have overflowed." 13:02 Now, I don't know about you, 13:03 but when I first heard that I suddenly realized, 13:05 hey man, I'm more like the nine lepers who never came back 13:08 than I am like that Samaritan, 13:10 the social outcast who took the time to say thanks. 13:16 I mean, look, I'm not a wealthy man 13:17 by any stretch of the imagination, 13:19 and I've got lots of problems in my life, believe me, 13:22 but I'm also not begging on a street corner today. 13:24 And as far as the global population is concerned, 13:27 I'd have to say that, you and I, we're all one percenters. 13:29 I know that doesn't really mesh with most people's thinking, 13:32 but it's true if you think about it. 13:34 I have traveled the world 13:35 and I have seen real grinding poverty. 13:39 And even a hard life here in America, 13:41 difficulties here are better 13:43 than some of the places I've seen. 13:45 I've seen a man with 14 kids subsisting in a 10 by 10 hut. 13:52 I've had poverty stricken mothers in India run up to me 13:54 as I'm walking through the village 13:55 and they try to give me their children 13:57 because they can't afford to feed them, 13:59 and they think I'm a rich American 14:01 who can take them back home. 14:03 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 14:04 we sponsor a home for girls who are rescued 14:07 from the horrific world of human trafficking, 14:10 and most of them were forced into childhood prostitution 14:13 because of the devastating poverty they were born into. 14:18 Look, I've seen suffering on a scale 14:19 that sometimes keeps me awake at night. 14:22 I remember the day that I climbed 14:23 into a cellar behind a church in Rwanda 14:25 where the bones of thousands of genocide victims 14:28 were stacked on shelves, and I found this tiny skull, 14:32 it must've come from a two-year-old 14:34 and it had been sliced in half by a machete. 14:37 And here I am living in the wealthiest country 14:40 in the history of the world, 14:41 and if I'm really honest about it, 14:43 I'm probably more prone to grumbling 14:45 than most of the people I've met live in these other places. 14:48 And I don't know why it is, 14:50 but it always seems to me like the people who have the most, 14:54 spend the most time complaining. 14:55 And honestly, there's something wrong with that. 15:00 Every year we dedicate just one day to thankfulness, 15:02 one out of 365, 15:04 and that's a far worse ratio than one out of 10. 15:08 So what would happen if we actually tried to make gratitude 15:10 a more regular part of daily life? 15:12 What if we just took more time 15:14 to recognize how good we really have it? 15:18 You know, right now it seems like this country 15:20 is more polarized and less happy than it ever has been 15:23 at least in my lifetime. 15:25 Every so often, you know, 15:26 I go and waste a little bit of time perusing social media, 15:29 and I can't help but notice 15:30 that that's getting to be a very unhappy place. 15:33 In fact, some days there's really nothing social about it. 15:36 And one of the biggest things I'm noticing 15:38 is just how many people wanna blame somebody else 15:40 for everything that goes wrong in their lives. 15:43 It's a non-stop barrage. 15:45 Y'all what's wrong with this country? 15:47 How dare you believe what you believe? 15:49 And you know, I think it might be the illusion of anonymity 15:52 that makes us behave like that online, 15:54 always at each other's throats, 15:56 but what if we were just more thankful? 16:00 Again, I'm not saying you don't have problems 16:02 because most people do, 16:03 and I'm not saying we live in some kind of paradise 16:05 where nothing needs fixing because we don't, 16:08 but just how much does complaining contribute to fixing it? 16:11 The answer is it doesn't. 16:14 And not for a minute would I dare to pretend 16:16 that I'm not part of the problem, 16:17 because I am, I love grumbling, 16:20 so maybe I'll be the first to admit 16:22 that I need to improve my capacity for thankfulness. 16:26 I know that most of you are familiar 16:27 with the Ten Commandments 16:28 or at least you're aware they exist 16:30 because they're such a formative 16:31 part of Western civilization or at least they used to be, 16:35 and out of those Ten Commandments, 16:37 there's one that doesn't really get much airplay because 16:40 well, most people forget it. 16:41 And ironically the one we forget 16:43 is the one that begins with the word, remember. 16:46 It says, 16:47 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 16:48 "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 16:50 "but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. 16:54 "In it you shall do no work, 16:55 "you, nor your son, nor your daughter, 16:57 "nor your male servant, nor your female servant, 16:59 "nor your cattle, 17:01 "nor your stranger who is within your gates. 17:03 "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, 17:05 "the sea, and all that is in them, 17:07 "and rested the seventh day. 17:09 "Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day 17:12 "and hallowed it." 17:13 So now you're wondering, 17:15 what in the world does that have to do with Thanksgiving? 17:16 Well, for quite a few years, 17:18 Jean and I have deliberately taken the time to observe 17:21 the Sabbath the way it's described in that commandment. 17:23 Not out of some kinda legalistic impulse 17:26 to try and win points with God, 17:28 but because we became convinced that the Sabbath 17:30 must have been designed as a gift for humanity. 17:33 After all Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man. 17:37 And so we started making the effort to keep it. 17:41 On Friday night at sunset when the biblical Sabbath begins, 17:44 we deliberately put aside our work 17:46 and all of our worries for 24 hours 17:48 until the sun goes down the next day. 17:51 And we gathered the kids in the family room, 17:52 Jean would put out a special platter of food 17:54 and we lit a couple of candles 17:56 and recognition of this special time, 17:58 we read Bible stories, we prayed together 18:00 and I've gotta say, 18:01 it became a real highlight in our house. 18:04 And one of the things we often did as the evening began 18:06 was to just go around the circle 18:09 and list what we're thankful for. 18:12 I remember one time having company over 18:14 and they joined us as we lit those candles 18:16 and we began to rehearse our gratitude 18:18 and I'll never forget the response. 18:20 They said, 18:21 "Wow, it's like you guys have Thanksgiving 18:23 "every single week." 18:24 And it's true, we kinda did. 18:26 So I mean, try to imagine what might happen 18:28 if every single week you took time off 18:30 from all your problems, 18:32 you didn't even let yourself think about them, 18:34 and you added 52 extra Thanksgiving days, every single year. 18:39 What would that be like? 18:40 I'll be right back after this. 18:44 [light music] 18:45 - [Announcer] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 18:46 we're committed to creating 18:47 top quality programming for the whole family. 18:50 Like our audio adventure series Discovery Mountain. 18:53 Discovery Mountain is a Bible based program 18:55 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 18:58 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 19:01 from this small mountain summer camp in town [mumbles] 19:03 with 24 seasonal episodes every year 19:06 and fresh content every week. 19:08 There's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 19:15 - Today I enjoy associating with a group of Christians 19:17 that really value the weekly Sabbath, they see it as a gift. 19:21 And yet, sometimes people will come to me and say, 19:24 man, if you observe the Sabbath, 19:25 that's gotta be some kind of legalism. 19:28 You're doing this to earn points with God 19:30 or to get into heaven. 19:32 And I guess if I was trying to impress God 19:35 with religious observance, they might have a point, 19:38 it would be a waste of time trying to impress God that way, 19:42 but if you consider the Sabbath 19:43 from a biblical point of view, 19:45 if you look at how it was designed, 19:47 you discover it was created as a gift. 19:50 I mean, go back to the story of Eden 19:51 and you'll find two things 19:52 that God gives the human race as a gift, 19:55 the institution of marriage and the Sabbath. 19:58 And you'll notice that both of these things are relational 20:01 and that's because of the character of God, 20:03 He's a God who craves relationship. 20:06 Marriage the Bible tells us 20:07 is a picture of Christ's relationship with His church, 20:10 and the Sabbath is dedicated time 20:13 for building a relationship with God. 20:15 Here's the way the Bible describes it, 20:17 now in Genesis 2, it says, 20:20 "Thus the heavens and the earth, 20:22 "and all the hosts of them, were finished. 20:24 "And on the seventh day 20:25 "God ended His work which He had done, 20:27 "and He rested on the seventh day 20:29 "from all His work which He had done. 20:31 "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, 20:34 "because in it He rested from all His work 20:36 "which God had created and made." 20:39 After the six days of creation, 20:41 the next thing God did, He took a day off. 20:44 And since the Bible tells us 20:45 that God neither faints nor is weary, 20:49 I've come to believe that God must have established 20:51 this weekly break for us, to set an example for us. 20:56 You know, when my youngest daughter was just a toddler, 20:58 she had a horrible time staying in bed. 21:01 So we would go up and help her say her prayers 21:03 and tuck her in, 21:05 and then turn off the lights and head downstairs, 21:07 and then five minutes later, 21:09 she was out of a room insisting she wasn't tired yet. 21:12 So one night I decided 21:14 to help her conquer this restlessness, 21:16 and I laid beside her on top of the covers. 21:18 And I said, 21:19 "Now you do what daddy does." 21:21 I close my eyes, 21:23 and I took a deep breath, and she took a deep breath, 21:25 and I said, let it out, 21:26 and she let it out and she copied me. 21:29 And of course I fell asleep 21:31 and she got up and went downstairs, 21:32 but you kinda get my point, I'm setting an example. 21:36 And it's entirely possible that your Maker 21:38 was trying to show you an example the best way to live. 21:41 Maybe He was making a specific sanctuary in time 21:44 so that you could just stop trying 21:46 and struggling all the time and just be His child. 21:50 And you gotta wonder, 21:51 what would happen 21:52 if you had that opportunity every single week? 21:56 And what would happen if you use 21:57 that dedicated time to practice gratitude? 22:00 You know, I don't live an exorbitant life, 22:02 but this week I had a roof over my head, 22:04 and I had food to eat, I shop at Target and Kohl's, 22:07 but I have clothes on my back. 22:10 I don't own a new car, but right now I have a reliable one. 22:13 And even though I'm feeling 22:15 the effects of aging like everybody else, I'm upright today, 22:17 and I can see the world around me 22:19 and I have the gift of life. 22:22 I mean, look, it is easy to find things to be unhappy about. 22:25 Believe me, I'm a pro, I'm good at it, 22:28 but why in the world would you waste 22:30 this one short lifetime focusing on everything that's wrong? 22:34 It doesn't make sense, not when you have a choice. 22:37 Now look, I'm gonna take one last quick break, 22:40 so while I'm away, do this, 22:41 why don't you go and get a pen and paper 22:44 and write down just three things you're thankful for? 22:47 You probably have time to make it five or 10, 22:50 write them down, I think you're gonna be surprised 22:52 by what you feel by the time you're done with the list. 22:55 I'll be right back after this. 22:58 [light music] 22:59 - [Announcer] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 23:03 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 23:08 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 23:10 and come away scratching your head, you're not alone. 23:13 Our free Focus on Prophecy guides are designed to help you 23:16 unlock the mysteries of the Bible 23:18 and deepen your understanding 23:20 of God's plan for you and our world. 23:22 Study online, or request them by mail 23:25 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 23:29 - You know, in addition to a weekly time 23:31 for gratitude and thankfulness, 23:34 I take the first hour of every day for the same reason too. 23:37 In the early hours before the office is open 23:40 and the world starts punching me in the teeth, 23:42 I head into my little study 23:44 and I sit in my chair and I think about my life. 23:47 You know, lately I've been reading from the Book of Psalms 23:49 and some days, I actually only make through a single verse 23:53 because I wanna always slow down and ask myself, 23:56 how does what I read actually apply to me? 23:59 Then I spend a little bit of time 24:00 being thankful for what I have. 24:03 Believe my life has been hard, 24:05 but there's always, always, always 24:08 something to be thankful for. 24:10 This is the time of year when children dress up 24:13 like Puritans and Pilgrims 24:14 and rehearse the stories of Plymouth Rock 24:16 and the hardship of that 24:18 first winter they had in the new world. 24:20 And somehow those people had less than we do by far, 24:25 and yet they found more to be thankful for. 24:29 And if we're honest, we'd have to admit that most of us 24:31 we're really like the nine lepers who never came back. 24:34 Compared to the rest of the planet, let's be honest, 24:36 we live a privileged existence 24:39 and we still somehow managed to convince ourselves 24:42 that our lives are lacking, that we've been done wrong. 24:47 You know, there's a passage in the Old Testament 24:49 that kinda describes how most of us live 24:51 and it's found in Proverbs 27. 24:54 It says, 24:55 "As in water face reflects face, 24:57 "so a man's heart reveals the man." 25:01 He's about to hold up a mirror 25:02 so you can get a good look at yourself. 25:04 "Hell," 25:05 he says that's literally Sheol or the grave, 25:08 "Hell and destruction are never full, 25:11 "so the eyes of man are never satisfied." 25:16 Just like the graveyards in your community 25:18 never stopped demanding new victims, 25:21 our talent for complaining he says 25:23 never runs out of things to be unhappy about. 25:26 If you choose to look at the world 25:28 from the perspective of an ungrateful heart, 25:30 you're always gonna come up empty, 25:32 and you're always gonna want something more. 25:36 And then over in the New Testament, 25:38 we have the example of Paul, 25:40 a missionary who was persecuted, relentlessly, 25:43 treated miserably, and eventually put to death. 25:47 And here's how this man chose to look at the world. 25:49 Just listen to this. 25:51 "Not that I speak in regard to need, 25:53 "for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. 25:58 "I know how to be abased, 25:59 "and I know how to abound. 26:01 "Everywhere and in all things I have learned 26:04 "both to be full and to be hungry, 26:07 "both to abound and to suffer need. 26:10 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 26:15 You know, Thanksgiving really easily 26:18 is my very favorite holiday because 26:21 there's something about it. 26:22 It's just so pure, so uncomplicated, 26:25 especially when you compare it 26:27 to a busy complicated holiday like Christmas. 26:30 Thanksgiving doesn't come with half the fuss, 26:32 it really seems just to be about thankfulness. 26:36 I know for some people it's also about football, 26:38 but really it's just about thankfulness. 26:41 And as far as I'm concerned, 26:42 there is nowhere near enough thankfulness anymore. 26:46 Our appetite for more stuff, more things is bottomless, 26:52 but our aptitude for thankfulness could use a little work. 26:55 I mean, imagine going through life content, content. 27:01 Listen, I'll tell you what, 27:03 as soon as the show's over, I'm gonna go 27:05 and make another list of things that I can be thankful for. 27:08 Maybe you should go and do the same yet again, 27:11 and maybe get your whole family together, 27:13 encourage them all to do it 27:15 including that one person in your house 27:17 who always, always has something to complain about. 27:20 Make the lists, then sit down and read them together. 27:24 And for goodness sake, be thankful 27:28 because it's just a better way to live. 27:31 So listen, happy Thanksgiving 27:33 and thanks for joining me today. 27:34 I'm Shawn Boonstra and this has been Authentic. 27:38 [upbeat music] |
Revised 2021-11-18