Which one are you?

It’s Thanksgiving Weekend here in Canada.  Happy Thanksgiving!

For some reason, on Thanksgiving I often think of a song from the 1942 movie, Holiday Inn.  The movie, starring Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds, Fred Astaire and Virginia Dale is about a guy named Jim who leaves show business to start an inn that’s only open on holidays.  It’s getting close to Thanksgiving, and Jim (Crosby) composes a song for the season, to sing at the inn.  He even records it.

But between then and the holiday, his sweetheart (Reynolds) leaves him.  He’s so depressed, he decides not to open the inn on Thanksgiving.  He’s left eating turkey all alone, listening to the song he recorded earlier.  As he listens, he talks back to himself.  Here’s the song, with his comments in red (I’m doing this from memory, so forgive any lack of precision):

Thanksgiving is such a matter of perspective, isn’t it?  There are times when the staunchest atheist cries out thanks to who-knows-who, and times when the most devout religious person can only shout out questions, or just plain anger.

At times when we’ve lost a loved one, a friend has turned against us, or we’re struggling with a chronic illness, we certainly don’t feel like saying thank you.  Perhaps this weekend you’re at the point where you can only cry out in despair and anger, and you find yourself where David was in Psalm 88.

For most of us, I think, it’s good to simply take the time for thanksgiving, even in the middle of life’s rollercoaster.  God has told us to give thanks for a reason.  He knows that it’s hard for some of us to do it naturally.  It may be our sin nature, or personality, or it may simply be that our circumstances are unbelievably difficult.  But when we stop to find things to be thankful for, we gain a new perspective, a fuller perspective.  It really is a good thing to give thanks (Psalm 92:1).  In the end, we may feel like Psalm 130, knowing hope in the midst of pain.  Or like Psalm 96, overflowing with thanks to the One who is truly the Giver of all good gifts.  Wherever you all this weekend, may God’s grace be real in your life.