I never expected a holiday I’ve experienced and enjoyed since I can remember would forever change the way I view and think about life. As i was back home visiting family for Thanksgiving I found myself overwhelmed with emotions I’ve never felt during this time of year before. I realized that this very time next year I won’t be at home visiting my family, instead I will be in another country serving the Lord and experiencing him in ways I’m sure I never have before. Thinking about being on the World Race this time next year made me incredibly excited, but it also got me thinking about what my day of “Thanksgiving” looks like in America and thinking about what Thanksgiving day might look like in different places throughout the world.
So what does Thanksgiving look like for you? My guess is most of ours look very similar. Probably some time spent with friends and family eating food and enjoying each other’s company for a few short hours. After all of us are stuffed and probably ready for naps we relax and maybe watch some football while planning our trips or multiple trips out for black Friday shopping. Sound about right? I know that’s what my Thanksgiving looked like.
So here is my question… how did we get Thanksgiving so wrong? When did a day of thanks turn into a day where we aren’t thankful for what we have been so abundantly blessed with? When did we start thinking that our nice 1,000 sq ft (or larger) heated and air conditioned houses with huge flat screen tv’s and multiple running vehicles in the drive way weren’t good enough for us anymore? We get upset when someone in our family doesn’t make our favorite side dish to share when we were looking forward to it for so many days… or maybe we get upset when we over cook some of our main dishes.
All of those thoughts started rushing through my head and I felt so guilty because I have been thinking and feeling so many of these things over the past week. I found myself complaining about being cold, so I went out into my car to get a jacket. When I was hungry I got up to get more food. These simple things that we do so routinely almost had me in tears.
There was a moment where I remember standing in front of a massive 21lb turkey and what I would estimate to be about a 10lb ham thinking: “man I’m really hungry but I don’t want to eat any more of this food… I wish there was something else I actually want to eat here”. It was in that moment God spoke to me so clearly. There are men, women, boys, and girls all around the world who don’t have the luxury of getting warm clothes when it is cold or getting food when they are hungry. The thought of kids shivering and huddling up next to one another at night just trying to stay warm because they don’t have any other options overwhelmed me. Thinking about people digging around through garbage just to find scrap food people have thrown away so they could have something to fill their starving stomachs broke my heart. In that moment where I was literally staring at 30+ lbs of meat made me think… how could I be so ungrateful? As I was fighting back tears I began praying and God revealed to me what Thanksgiving truly means.
Friends, I felt called to share this story with y’all today because Thanksgiving isn’t a time meant to focus on ourselves and what great deals we can find for shopping the next day. There are people all throughout the world RIGHT NOW who don’t have the luxuries we take advantage of each and every day. Our brothers and sisters are sick, hungry, and cold at this very moment and there is so much we can be doing about it. Most importantly there are those same brothers and sisters who don’t know who the great and mighty God we serve is; and that honestly breaks my heart even thinking about it. It is our responsibility as children of God to spread his name to the ends of the earth!
Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday for us to focus inward, in fact it is the exact opposite. Thanksgiving is a holiday where we give thanks to the Lord our God for all of the blessings he has given us and we begin to focus outward. What if we spent our Black Friday money buying food and bibles for the homeless and ministering to those who don’t know who the God in our heart is. What would happen if we changed our focus and actually started living the great commission?
From this Thanksgiving forward I will not be focused on myself, instead I’m thankful for the ability to call myself a child of God! What are you thankful for in this season of Thanksgiving?
In Christ,
Cody Bates
