November 17, 2023

Friends,

Greetings. When I sat down last evening and turned on the television, I flipped to the SEC Sports Network  with the intent of watching a little bit of the South Carolina women’s basketball game against Clemson and then later, maybe one of the news stations. I never switched stations. I don’t write to antagonize any of our Clemson Tiger fans, but one does have to compliment the Gamecocks and especially Coach Staley for the program she has developed in Columbia. In recognition of the lopsided score, 109-40, there is the upcoming football game.between South Carolina and Clemson on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I suspect the basketball score will come into play as the two teams take the field.

Later in the evening as my head hit the pillow I remembered some of my athletic contests from the past, and the grace of learning how to live with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. As I remember it I never played well as a starter in basketball, but did fairly well as a utility player coming off the bench. My role was usually one of creating havoc on the floor, disrupting the flow of the game, and doing my best to foul the best players on the opposing team. The way I looked at it, you’ve got to be good at something.

Those days are long gone, but I remain thankful for what I learned in those years long ago. Yes, there are going to be days when the wind is at your back and there will be days when you do your best, but for whatever reason, the road will refuse to rise and meet your feet. I recently noticed a sign posted outside of one of our downtown shops that shared an interesting message. I didn’t write it down, but I remember it saying something to the effect that as the wind blows and life comes our way, we should never be scared. We take what comes, rejoicing in victory and brushing ourselves off in defeat, in the effort of always engaging life.

In preparation for Thanksgiving only six days away, may we take a moment to give thanks for all of the many lessons learned, and for the blessings and challenges that come our way as followers of Christ. As we ponder how to frame a prayer of thanksgiving, I have found a prayer from the late Peter Marshall to be quite useful and appropriate for the time in which we live,

“Our Father in Heaven, if ever we had a cause to offer our fervent thanks, surely it is now, on the eve of our Thanksgiving Day, when we, the people of this Nation, are comfortable, well fed, well clad, and blessed with good things beyond our deserving. May gratitude, the rarest of all virtues, be the spirit of our observance.

“Let not feasting, football, and festivity end in forgetfulness of God. May the desperate need of the rest of the world, and our own glorious heritage, remind us of the God who led the American people every step of the way by which they advanced to the character of an independent nation

May the faith and conviction of George Washington be renewed in us as we remember his words,

‘There is no truth more thoroughly established than that which exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and and right which Heaven itself has ordained.

For if we do not have the grace to thank You for all that we have and enjoy; how can we have the effrontery to seek Your further blessings? O God, give us grateful hearts. For Jesus’s sake. Amen.

(From the Senate of the United States, November 26, 1947, Rev. Dr. Peter Marshall, Senate Chaplain and pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington DC)

As we, along with our families, loved ones, and friends continue to plan for Thanksgiving Day and the weekend that follows, may we not forget or overlook the opportunity to give thanks to God with grateful hearts for all we have and enjoy. (Psalm 100), May the peace of Jesus Christ be with you. See you Sunday, my friends, see you Sunday. +