Proper Perspective

I Thessalonians 5:14-18

A young lady wrote a letter home from college, It reads:
"Dear Mom: Sorry I haven’t written sooner, but my arm has been broken. I broke it, and my left leg, when I jumped from he second floor of my dormitory...you see my dorm room was on fire. We were lucky because a young service station attendant saw the blaze and called the Fire Department. They were there in minutes. I was in the hospital for a few days and Paul, the service station attendant, came to see me every day. And because it was taking so long to get our dormitory in livable conditions again, I decided to move in with Paul. He has been so nice. I just recently discovered that I am pregnant. But, don’t worry, Paul and I plan to get married just as soon as he can get a divorce from his wife. I hope things are fine at home. I’m doing fine, and will write more when I get the chance. Love,
Your daughter, Susie
P.S. None of the above is true. I just wanted you to have the "Proper Perspective!” because I did get a "C" in Sociology and a “D” in Chemistry.

In today’s scripture reading Paul is calling us to be thankful in all circumstances. This just happens to be one of the greatest challenges in the Bible.  It ranks right up there with praying unceasingly, picking up your cross and carrying it daily, and loving your enemies.  How is it that Paul calls us to be thankful in all circumstances?  Does he mean that I’m supposed to be thankful when someone cuts me off as I pull out of the church parking lot?  What about when my family members are sick…am I to be thankful for that?  Or am I to be thankful about natural disasters or tragedies that take the lives of thousands of people?  Folks it is very important that we understand that Paul is saying to be thankful in all circumstances and not for all circumstances.  No we are not to be thankful that someone got sick or that someone passed away, but we are to continue to show our thankfulness during those difficult times.

The Thanksgiving holiday evolved in tough times.  The Pilgrims gathered with the natives to celebrate that first Thanksgiving despite the fact that nearly half the colony had died in the first winter.

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln set aside a day for Thanksgiving as a national holiday. It was the midst of the Civil War. No one in their right mind would thank God for the Civil War and the numerous deaths that came with it; but in the middle of all of the pain and suffering, Lincoln called us forth as a divided nation to give thanks.

The hymn we just sang, “Now Thank We All Our God” was written by Marin Rinkart in the1600’s, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years' War. Rinkart was a German pastor, and buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, an average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote 'Now thank we all our God / With heart and hands and voices;/ Who wondrous things had done,/ In whom His world rejoices. "Here was a man who knew that thanksgiving comes from the love of God, and not from outward circumstances. He was a man who had the proper perspective.

So why is it today that so many people seem to be ungrateful and where does this ungratefulness come from?  I think it comes from two things:  one is oblivion, and the other is entitlement. The first one is pretty clear.  If you are oblivious about what God and others are doing for you then you will not be grateful for it.   Entitlement on the other hand is the sense that we deserve and that we are entitled to what we have.  This is a dangerous attitude that continually gets in the way of gratitude.  Many of us think we are entitled to a long life, good health, a loving relationship with our spouse, obedience from our children, and a 15% return on our investments.  So when we receive these things many times we don’t show our gratitude because we have come to expect it.  People, we have even come to expect salvation or expect heaven just because we have said some little prayer or because we claim that we have “accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.”  And we move right into our attitude of entitlement that says “Hey God I said your prayer, I did my part, I went through the motions, now you owe me.

There are so many situations in which we do not give thanks.  So my challenge for you is to take this Thanksgiving to look at some of the elements that no one in their right mind would ever be thankful for.  Here are some examples:

I am Thankful for.........
....clothes that fit a little too snug ....because it means I have enough to eat.
....a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing ....because it means I have a home to live in.
....the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot ....because it means I am capable of walking.
....my heating bill ....because it means I am warm.
....all the complaining I hear about our government ....because it means we have freedom of speech.
....the man in church who sings off key. ....because it means that I can hear.
....the piles of laundry and ironing ....because it means my loved ones are nearby.
....the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours ....because it means that I’m alive.
....weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day ....because it means I am able to work.....the taxes I pay ....because it means I’m employed or that I am receiving some form of income.

Do you remember that wonderful Children's holiday classic "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas?"  It was released a few years ago as a movie staring Jim Carrey. You'll recall in the story how the Grinch enters all the homes by way of their chimneys disguised as Santa Clause. He takes all the presents and ornaments, the trees and stockings, and even their food down to the last morsel. He drags his loot up to his mountain and then looks down upon Whoville with a sinister grin. He is listening for the cries and wailings of the people to start as they wake up on Christmas morning to discover a Christmas lost. What he hears instead surprises him. Up from the town of the Whos comes a joyful Christmas carol. They are singing. Through this experience he learns, that Christmas resides not in things but in the heart which is thankful. You see the Grinch could steal their ornaments.  He could steal their presents.  He could steal their food.  But he could not steal their souls.  He could not steal their spirit.  And he could not steal their gratitude.

There was a young man feeling very proud of himself. As a brand-new college graduate he had taken the C.P.A. Exams & passed with flying colors. Now he was a full-fledged Certified Public Accountant.  His father had been an immigrant to the U.S., & now owned his own little business. Filled with self-importance, the young man began to criticize his father’s way of keeping books. He said, “Dad, you don’t even know how much profit you’ve made. Over here in this drawer are your accounts receivable. Over there are your receipts, & you keep all your money in the cash register. You don’t have any idea how much you’ve made.” The father answered, “Son, when I came to this country the only thing I owned was a pair of pants. Now, your sister is a doctor, your brother is an art teacher, & you are a C.P.A. Your mother & I own our home. We have a car, we own this little business, we have our health, our friends, and our church. Now add that up, subtract the pants, & all the rest is profit.”

Add it up, folks. That’s exactly what we need to do at Thanksgiving. Add it all up. Take who you are, what you have, the relationships that make a difference in your life…you add it all up. Subtract the soul that God gave us. And everything else is profit.

Friends Paul is calling us to give thanks in all circumstances. Paul isn’t some Pollyanna that has lived life on Easy Street.  He has lived a life of persecution, he was run out of cities, he was shipwrecked three different times, he was flogged and beaten on numerous occasions and he was imprisoned multiple times.  And he’s the one calling us to give thanks in all circumstances.

Because when we can do that…when we can do that, then we will have the proper perspective…the proper perspective.