Thanksgiving Thoughts
“Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Teresa of Avila
The first thing I saw this morning was news of the militant attack on the Sufi Mosque in Egypt that took the lives of 235 people. My heart is weeping today for the worshiping community that is in turmoil. My heart is broken for my brothers and sisters of this world that have been ravaged by hate and injustice. On this day after Thanksgiving, I am overwhelmed with questions and uncomfortable thoughts.
While I think it is important to be grateful everyday, the season of Thanksgiving is a time to be extra intentional about such gratitude. But I also find that I am having a difficult time being thankful when this exercise requires me to feel the full weight of my privilege. I feel almost guilty for experiencing gratitude for the things that other people do not even have the opportunity to be thankful for.
I live in a country that spends the day after Thanksgiving, a day supposedly dedicated to being content with what we have, buying things they simply do not need. The season of Thanksgiving seems to have become a holiday of consumption, eating as much food as possible, finding the best deals possible, and simply taking as much as possible. This attitude is not a reflection of the gratitude we say this holiday is meant to celebrate.
As I thought about all these things this morning, the loss of the 235 lives in the Egypt attack, the orphans in Peru that do not have clean water, the friends and family members spending their Friday in shopping malls while others around the world can barely afford food, I was not sure what to do with myself or the resources and privilege I have been given. But I was struck by one simple thought:
If I am not grateful, then the things I do have will be vanity anyway.
For now, I need to start with gratitude in the little things. This morning, that meant being thankful for my puppy snuggling her head next to me while I drank my coffee. But I have no idea what it will mean tomorrow. I need to take this gratitude thing one day at a time, because if I do not, I find myself overwhelmed with that I am not able to change.
So today, I will chose to be thankful. I will be thankful for my body's little quirks, like how my hands shake when I speak about injustice and feel broken at the inability to change that. I will be thankful for the small number in my bank account, because that is still enough to sustain a life. I will be thankful for the 78 degree weather in the middle of November because I live in paradise. I will be thankful simply for my daily portion, nothing more, nothing less.
No matter the season, we have been called to be the body of Christ, and this ought to radically change the way we go about our days. Let us use our advantage in this hurting world to make a difference, because we are called to be the hands, feet, and eyes of the One who can change everything.
Let us use today to be His body.