Did you enjoy Thanksgiving?

What is Thanksgiving? For many, it is a day to indulge in gluttony. A day to overeat and then grouse about being “too full.”

Though the symbol of Thanksgiving is a turkey, many make pigs of themselves. For others, Thanksgiving is a warmup for the orgy of materialism known as Christmas, the time of the year for attempting to satisfy our lust for things. This is when materialism seems to be the established religion of the age.

Things that we don’t need, but that we must have in order to be happy.

Things to add to other unneeded stuff that we have to fit into closets, attics and garages, or in the numerous mini-warehouses and storage centers that mark the urban landscapes.

It seems that our lives are bound up in things.

Recall the materialistic 1980s, when many, especially the breed known as the yuppies, sought six-figure incomes, luxurious cars, expensive homes, and other marks of success in this world. Someone created a bumper sticker with the message, “Whoever dies with the most toys, wins!”

Someone else, no doubt more spiritually minded, countered with a sticker that read, “Whoever dies with the most toys, loses.”

Indeed. When we depart this life, we will not take our toys with us.

The Thanksgiving holiday is over for now, but true Thanksgiving need not be. Rather than a stuff-yourself holiday, Thanksgiving is an attitude, a profound gratitude to God and those who came before us and bequeathed to us the blessings that we have and enjoy.

I close with something that I first saw in a Veterans Administration hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1981. I doubt that this meditation, “Prayer by an Unknown Confederate Soldier,” appears in government buildings nowadays.

A number of stories surround the message. Some say it was found on the body of a soldier killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Others say it was written by a Jewish soldier of the South. In any case, the message is timeless and priceless.

Happy Thanksgiving. Now and always.

Prayer by an Unknown Confederate Soldier

I asked for strength that I might achieve:

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything that I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered,

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.