THE WEIGHT OF OPPORTUNITY

Life is but a vapor, it’s short (James 4:14). There are so many moments in a day that carry the weight of opportunity to bless people, and it’s sometimes easy to take those moments for granted. Many times, we’re deceived by the devil into believing our thoughts and actions don’t have eternal repercussions, but they do.

Thanksgiving, as a holiday, is easy to turn into a day of only feasting, drinking, and laughing. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with eating, drinking, and laughing. Solomon even says in Ecclesiastes 2:24 that it’s good for man to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his toil. However, there is something wrong with doing these things without carrying the gratitude towards God for all He has given us.

WE NEED GOD FOR OUR HEARTBEAT

For some of us, we place too much emphasis on food; pleasing ourselves and others in ways that isn’t actually beneficial to anyone, and I’ll tell you why. When our emphasis is placed on the food preparation, but little to no emphasis is placed on the significance of how we love the people we’re cooking for, we’ve lost the heart of the reason why we’ve cooked. We end up undermining what it means to appreciate people by spending all our energy and love on what isn’t actually living. Food will be here tomorrow, because it’s not depending on God for a heartbeat. But people need God, or we have no heartbeat. Do we treat people, not just during the holidays but also every other day of the year—as though they may not have a heartbeat tomorrow, or even tonight? Do we take the time to think about what it means to show thankfulness to those God places in our lives to love?

UNNECESSARY WORLDLY APPROVAL

The world thinks differently than Christ-followers. The world of disbelief is the reason we find excuses to “drink to forget,” rather than living to remember what matters most.

The world is also the reason we feel the pressure to please; it is the cause of stress induced by our belief that we need to impress someone, or to gain approval from people whose approval we don’t actually need. Let’s remember what love actually is based on Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV version)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

WE LOVE BECAUSE GOD LOVES US

When we are loved by someone in this way, we don’t feel the need to please them, because pleasure is derived from loving. To love someone is to please them; to be loving is pleasing. When we love someone, we serve them. Let’s not confuse loving someone with desiring their love for us—meaning, their approval. That is conditional love. On Thanksgiving, we’re not loving others so that they will love us in return; we’re loving others because of how much they mean to us.

When we love someone, it is pleasing to God because God is love, and it is pleasing to the person we love because God is shown in love. Loving someone doesn’t come from a place of desiring approval, because that would be love shown for the sake of receiving credit; that is self-seeking, and love isn’t selfish.

LOVE IS GOD-MADE

Food connects people, but many times, we cook large amounts of food for people who don’t show appreciation; they show up to eat and leave. Thanksgiving, in these instances, is abused and forsaken by conditional love manifesting in the facade of unconditional love. We can’t replace love with food, and we aren’t celebrating holidays if we carry bitterness, resentment, and exhaustion at the hands of misplaced effort. 

Again, we revisit the significance of the many small and large moments throughout each and every day, that when added up, illuminates the picture of a life where God is in the details. Life is God loving people, and how He is loving people through His children (Christ-followers). Holidays are man-made. Love is God-made. God is love (1 John 1:16). When we substitute God with people, or when we place more importance on the quantity of food we make rather than the measure of love we extend, the holiday has become a word rather than a special time of blessing people. Then the food becomes the division between people’s needs, and people’s expectations.

CHRISTIANITY IS A LIFESTYLE

Love has no expectations, only hope. Someone who needs us to cook for them in order to be a loving human being isn’t loving unconditionally. Thanksgiving is our reminder to love people without expectation or need for approval. It’s a reminder to find the signature of God written on the little and the big things in every day life, and to love people as God loved us first.

It’s not just about one day, it’s about every day. The same way Christianity isn’t just church service on Sundays, Thanksgiving isn’t just one Thursday of the year. Christianity is a lifestyle, and Thanksgiving is a heart posture. If that isn’t where some of us are coming from as we enter this Thanksgiving season, we need to put our hearts in check.

NO EXCUSE NOT TO GIVE THANKS

God gave everything for us in Christ, and He makes the sun shine on both the evil and on the good (Matthew 5:45). Therefore, we have no excuse not to give thanks for all His goodness. We have no reason not to love the people God puts in our lives, and to do so without expectation. There is so much to be thankful for, if we slow down and the take the time to recognize it.

CHOOSING TO LOVE IN JESUS’S NAME

This isn’t the time to speed up and miss what matters most. This is the time to slow down and live most intentionally, most lovingly, and most thankfully. Not just on the holiday, but every day leading up to the day of Christ’s return on the clouds of heaven. While time is short, we have enough time to make the decision right now to be more loving, more giving, and more present, in Jesus’s name. As we are Christ-followers, we are here for God’s purposes, and that is where our efforts need to be.

May He bless you all with wisdom, compassion, and generosity. May this Thanksgiving be different from all the rest, as we remember that it’s not about what man says, it’s about what God has done for us.

Photo by Yana Gorbunova on Unsplash