Is that all?

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus...  1 Thess. 5:18 (NIV)

I just read a little blurb from an article on being thankful and it was from way back in 2006...way back then.  Ha.  Anyway, I just loved the perspective of it and now wish I had saved it.  I will start with a few things this article mentioned (paraphrasing) and then throw in my own thoughts.

What in the world do we have to be thankful for?  How about the fact that we can worship freely in churches whenever we choose without persecution.  Or how about the ease with which we can travel from one coast to another without providing proof of citizenship or identification?  We may have an 9% unemployment rate (I'm just guessing) but that means that 91% are employed and for wages far above many in other countries.  Not to mention a large number of jobs in the United States offer benefits including sick days and vacation days.  Yes, people are paid to be at home sick or on vacation. 

Have you ever thought about the fact that we can go to a grocery store, whole sale club or convenience store/gas station and see more food in one glance than some in other countries will ever see?  I get aggravated when I have to go to Wal-Mart because invariably something about the visit ticks me off.  Today on the way to Wal-Mart to purchase supplies for a lavish Thanksgiving meal, I whispered a prayer of thankfulness for being able to go to a Wal-Mart where I get bent out of shape if the right type of apple is not available.  My visit actually went pretty well until I dropped the large container of yogurt and busted it at the checkout ;) 

What about being able to walk into your house and turn on a light with the flick of a hand, going to the sink and getting almost an unlimited amount of clean water, being able to use the restroom in the comfort of our homes with a simple flush to take it all away to a septic or sewer system that we rarely have to mess with.  My living room carpet has two holes from my precious dog...but thank you, God, that I have living room carpet.  I cannot imagine living in a 'home' with dirt or concrete flooring. 

At the tip of our fingertips is a remote control that gives us anywhere from 50-300 options of television viewing.  Just think, it wasn't too awful long ago that you had to get up and walk to the television to change the channel...and we only had three channels.  Thanks to our DVR, we can even pause live television and record things, which means we can later fast-foward those pesky commercials. 

People go on and on complaining when a cellular telephone drops a call or has no signal.  Just watch Facebook for a while if a cellular telephone company is interrupting service to maintain or upgrade their system.  Major hysteria.  Have we already forgotten that 30 years ago, the only folks with cell phones were the Jetson's...and even those were considered 'make believe'?

I didn't live through this particular time period, but I've heard the stories from the wars...wives, mothers, fathers would sit at home waiting on the postal service to deliver a letter from their beloved soldier, whom they might not have heard from in weeks or months.  They treasured that handwritten letter and stored it away, rereading it over and over.  Now, we can e-mail, Facebook, Skype, text people and they receive the message almost instantaneous.  With Skype, you can actually see another person live as you have a conversation.  That is certainly something to be thankful for!

As I make list after list preparing for tomorrow's Thanksgiving meal at my house, trying to decide how much to make of this or that, wondering if there will be enough for everyone, hoping there are plenty of options for those picky Kannmacher's like me, I think how silly it is that tomorrow I will probably throw away or give my dogs enough leftovers to feed a family for a week in a poverty-stricken country.  Why?  Because I will be so sick of looking at all that food, I won't even want to save it.   I didn't have to go kill a turkey (or have Jay do it;), I went to the frozen food section at Wal-Mart and bought a Butterball, dressed and wrapped for my convenience.  What effort I put into tomorrow's feast is minimal when you think about it.

I haven't even gotten to all the stuff the Lord has done for us.  These things mentioned above are worldly conveniences and pleasure items.  Other than the clean water and a much smaller amount of food, I could live without them...and sometimes wish maybe I did.  We have so much to be thankful for and yet we still find things to complain about.  I am just as guilty as the next person. 

Tomorrow and every day, Lord, help us to be thankful in all circumstances, even the less-than-perfect ones.        Happy Thanksgiving!!