Guess what? There is a major American holiday that happens between Halloween and Christmas!
You may not notice this among the retailers, but it is on the calendar! It’s called Thanksgiving — that’s the day before Black Friday. It was not until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln established a national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.
Quite honestly, it is hard to “market” thankfulness, and in general, we as Americans especially, in my opinion, not very good at it. In recent years, there appears to be a sense of entitlement and ingratitude for what we do have. No matter how much we get, we always seem to want more.
Let’s put things into a little perspective. The U.S. is the third most populace nation in the world. This, however, only equates to about 5 percent of the world’s total population.
Add to that fact that the U.S. owns roughly half of everything there is to be owned in the world. Do the math here and you quickly discover that 95 percent of the world shares the remaining half of the stuff. Factor out Western Europe and select parts of Asia and it becomes clear that much of the world has the clothes on their backs and little else.
For a little more information about American consumerism, read the following article, “21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually Own” at https://www.becomingminimalist. com/clutter-stats/ Diving deeper into statistics (I realize this is a dangerous game), you will find that half of the world lives on less than $3 per day. Someone living at the poverty line in our country lives on approximately $30 per day. If you are poor in our country, and if you have access to clean water, healthcare, shelter, electricity and a refrigerator with food in it, then you are actually among the top 16 percent of the wealthiest people in the world, according to ourworlddata.org.
Do not hear me saying that poverty, homeless and hunger are OK in our country and we can continue to ignore these problems; I am not! I am merely trying to point out that there are those in the world far worse off than we are and that we could have been born in a country whose total gross national product is less than Missouri’s; where the roads of their capital cities are not even paved.
These numbers are expressed here to help us all see that in all the world we are blessed, and we should be thankful, even if we are not rich in our own eyes. Psalm 103:2 says, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” That verse translates into the old hymn “Count Your Blessings.”
This year, on the last Thursday in November, take a moment to count the blessings you do have and express to God your thankfulness.
Resolve to stop focusing on that which you do not have, because that only makes us bitter, miserable,and thankless.
It is at least something to think about. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
James Weaver is the pastor of First Baptist Church, located at 602 West St. in Cassville. He may be reached at 417-847-2965 or info@fbccassville.org.
