Imagine....All the wonderful smells of an awesome Thanksgiving meal. Guests begin to come in. Lots of hugs, handshakes and backslaps. Laughter, talk, comments on the meal. And then, everyone sits down at the beautifully set table and the hosts bring in the meal. Before everyone begins to eat, they go around the table and express what each one is thankful for. This is done so all can see the need for thankfulness. Say the gathering is a group or family of Christians. They are thankful for the family, their church, God's provision, all of those things. Then the prayer and the feast begins.

This is the pattern many Thanksgiving meals follow. Absolutely nothing wrong with it. The children are taught the need to be thankful, the adults are reminded that the blessings they experience are from to the Lord. A very nice thing, a very important part of Thanksgiving.

But another question comes to my mind; What are you unthankful for?

Uh, what now? It is Thanksgiving. We are supposed to be thankful, not unthankful. Right? 

Certainly. We should be thankful. Ephesians 5:20, Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; There, you see, we are to be thankful all the time!  This is true, but is this the primary emphasis of the verse?

In this case, the paragraph begins at verse 15 and runs through verse 21. It is a passage that deals with Christian conduct. Verse 20 indicates it is not just the outside conduct, but also the inward conduct, which is a Biblical theme. In this case, it is being thankful for all things.

Well, of course I am thankful for all things! OK. What about that job or that family member or the weather or your special sports team or school or whatever. The anger and frustration you feel is not thankfulness. 

While in seminary I worked for a while with a group of home builders. Mitchell Brothers' Construction. Three brothers that all looked just alike. Weird, really. Anyway, my job was to mix the mortar that went in the joints to hold brick or block together. I would carry the brick or block to where it was needed and then roll the wheelbarrows filled with mortar to where the work was happening. Really a hard job. I had been in the ministry for several years and was working to finish my education. I had the stresses of school, the church I served, the job I had and my small family. I was thinking of chucking seminary and going back to Miami, where I had opportunities to serve and friends to hang with. I was disgruntled with everything around me and I wanted the comfort of the past. I was working in the basement area of a new construction. I had just brought a wheelbarrow of mortar to the basement area and was bent over by the unfinished block wall that separated two sections of the basement. Just then, one of the Mitchell brothers called my name. I stood up, but the block wall was just a bit higher than my head. I stood up on several blocks to be able to see and hear him. I was grumbling inside, wondering what the master wanted me to do right then. To my surprise, all he said was 'Let's call it a day!' Wow! Cool! 

And then a thought came to my mind. The block wall was like all the things in my life. The wall in my heart had gotten higher and higher and was blocking out God. Oh, I was in seminary, I was a Youth Pastor. In both of those endeavors I showed all the marks of a very good Christian. But that wall was getting higher and higher. Soon there would be no place for the Lord. I had to do something. And what I did was I began to turn it all over to the Lord.

It didn't happen right away. But it did happen. What is the evidence? I could lay out a lot of things, but let me give some things many of you are familiar with. April 2017, they were going to do a triple heart by-pass on me. The wife and son and daughter-in-law had been ushered out. The very pregnant nurse was making me ready. Tears were falling off her face. "Are you OK?" She looked down at me and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. But they have detected a problem with the heartbeat in the baby." I reached up and took her hand and began to pray for her. When I was done, she was weeping. She was giving me a big hug when transport arrived. As we rolled down the hall, I thought, 'What a blessing! This makes it all worth it!' Over the last six years of that ministry at the Indiana church, I spent a lot of time in hospital and doctors' offices. In those places I got to share the Lord. The illnesses were not pleasant, but I got to share the Gospel with many I would never have met. Moving to Ohio after retirement I very soon had the joy of a toe amputation. When everything related to that was over, I had spent three weeks in the hospital and rehab. In every instance, I worked to not build a wall in my spirit. I shared the Gospel at every opportunity. The one thing I truly love to do, ministry, I cannot do right now. But I still share the Gospel. I am not perfect. I have my bad moments. But the wall is not being rebuilt.

Express your gratefulness on this day, but also be true to the Lord and start working on the unthankful things that cloud your mind.

Oh, and that pregnant nurse went into the hospital that night in distress. They had to do an emergency C-section. The baby was fine, mama was fine and it worked out. God is good!

Blessings.