Rodney Drury: A Mystical Thanksgiving

A Mystical Thanksgiving

I have spent the last couple of months working on growing in gratitude. It has been a great time and I have discovered that my emotions have become more positive. God has helped me to see how little blessings can make my day and be constant reminds of His presence and the gift of life He has given me. Just seeing life as a gift has a reward of joy.

Now I’m working on closure, ending, change and transition. With the coming of the year end, I want to have a perspective that embraces what God is doing and loosens the grip of fear and chaos much of the world seems to be bound by. The journey of investigation has been exciting as I discover, over and over again, the basics of life and the wisdom of God. I know some smile as I share with them how life is like a Pringles can. Others offer inquisitive looks as I talk about perspective and not knowing. How we live when we don’t know is fascinating to me. One of my life themes is “you don’t know what you don’t know.” You can reflect on that or move onto the reflection I am about to offer those who are seeking a Mystical Thanksgiving.

Solomon, in the Bible, is credited as being one of the wisest men on earth. He wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Two verse from that text are below. When I read these I want to read them with the understanding that they come from a very wise person.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor--it is the gift of God.

(Ecc 3:12-13)

To me these are great Thanksgiving verses. Rejoicing and doing good is how we can live our lives in a meaningful way. How simple and insightful. How wonderful (full of wonder) to know that what we perform, what titles and positions we have, are less meaningful than joy and goodness. Add to this that our life can be gifted by God with eating, drinking and seeing that our labor in life is good. Good, in this verse, has a very wide meaning, including aspects of beauty, joy, kindness, and help. It might be enough to consider these things but I want to press on just a little more.

Prior to this passage is the more famous “time to” section. I’ll share that passage in a moment along with a chart for your Mystical Thanksgiving Adventure. What I am offering you the opportunity to do is to look over your life and see what times God has gifted you with. As you remember those times, I am going to ask you to investigate or inquire of the Lord concerning their cause and there purpose.

Even when you recall a hard or grievous time, look for how God redeemed or used that time for good. That does not mean everything is good, it is not. But God uses all the stuff in our lives for good. God does not waist even the bad or evil done to us if we keep bitterness out and Him near.

The goal is to better understand the seasons in life (change) with gratitude toward God for the gift of life He gives us. I hope that you become full of thankfulness for your life. I hope that every evil is redeemed in your mindset as you have thanks to God for reversing the harm this world and the evil one sought to confine you in. I hope that hope increases as you see that you are not trapped in your present situation, change is coming.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.
(Ecc 3:1-13) ESV

Time to	Why/Cause	Purpose
Born
Die
Plant
Uproot
Kill
Heal
Tear down
Build up
Weep
Laugh
Mourn
Dance
Throw stones
Gather stones
Embrace
Shun from embracing
Search
Give up as lost
Keep
Throw away
Tear apart
Sew together
Silent
Speak
love
Hate
War
Peace