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“We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks . . .”  – Psalm 75:1 

“Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us.  We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things.  Amen”     (Book of Common Prayer)

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with joy and gratitude!!

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

– Hebrews 11:1 

Even at age thirteen (ninety-one in dog years) our beloved blue-heeler Cowgirl still puts us through the same early morning drill, and with the same vigor and passion as ever, nudging us toward the door for her daily stroll around the block.  “We’re burning daylight!” she demands.  Cowgirl, you see, is a living testimony of the definition of faith.  She is sure of what she hopes for – that is, an early morning neighborhood walk – and certain of what she does not yet see – that is, some sort of excitement out there, another dog, a squirrel, or best of all a rabbit.

You know the feeling.  Remember when you were a child and your birthday was approaching, how you would be excited and anxious at the same time?  You were sure there would be a birthday cake and some other special treats, but you were also certain there would be surprises.  Faith is like that, sort of a combination of assurance and anticipation, a conviction based on past experience and an expectation there will be even more to come.  Cowgirl wakes up every morning with that assurance that we’ll go for a stroll because it’s part of our routine – her past experience – but also with the anticipation that there will be surprises along the way.

Faith is often too narrowly defined as synonymous with religious belief.  But it is much more than that.  Faith, rather, is a response to God, an affirmation of the amazing abundance provided through His creation.  It is about seeking and discovering knowledge, value, and inspiration from our experiences.  It is responding to God by accepting his invitation to participate in the process, to be creators ourselves and offering our creations as gifts back to Him.

Jesus tells us in Luke 18:17 that entering God’s kingdom requires the kind of faith and trust of a little child.  To me that means being sure of what we hope for, but with room left over for surprises.  If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, just pay attention to dogs and small children.  They’re living testimonies to the definition of faith.

“One nation under God . . .” 

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.  America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers.  It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again.  But baseball has marked the time.  This field, this game; it’s part of our past, Ray.  It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.” 

These lines spoken so eloquently by James Earl Jones who played Terrance Mann in the movie “Field of Dreams” kept rolling over and over in my head as I, like millions of other Americans, sat glued to the television during this season’s World Series games between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs.  Unlike any Series I’ve watched in years, there seemed something unexplainably mystical about this one.  Maybe it had to do with the two teams, both of whom had been plagued by such long histories as underdogs.  But there had to be more to it than that.  Otherwise, why did so many of us feel like we were being dipped in “magic waters”, as James Earl Jones put it?

Perhaps it was the decorum on the field; for though intensely competitive as it was, behavior was nothing short of exceptional – no name calling, no character assassinations, playing by the rules, each batter facing the opposing pitcher not as an enemy, but as a worthy and respected opponent with his own unique spin on the ball.  And when mistakes were made they were owned up to, shaken off, and corrections made.  One team did become the victor, but neither was a loser, indeed both were winners, the best of the best.

Then it occurred to me that we were witnessing through this magnificent World Series America at her best, a breath of fresh air from these past months of enduring the most dismal presidential campaign in my lifetime, reassuring us that we are still “one nation under God.”  Yet it wasn’t politicians who dipped us in those magic waters; rather it was baseball, “the one constant through all the years. . .” as James Earl Jones articulated so beautifully in the movie.  “America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers.  It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again,” he exclaims.  “But baseball has marked the time. . . It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.”

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” – Luke 10:27 

Can you imagine a football or baseball game without rules, a business or organization without policies, or society absent laws and regulations?  The purpose of laws, regulations, rules and policies, after all, is to provide structure and order.  Without them it would be chaos.  But while rules, regulations, laws and policies do an overall effective job controlling human behaviors within reasonable boundaries, the one thing they cannot do is form or change a person’s character; for character comes from the heart, and is represented by behavior beyond simply abiding by the letter of the law.

My least favorite duty back in my Wall Street days was being responsible for ensuring everyone within my scope of influence abided by the rules and regulations, being a policeman of sorts.  I hated that.  But it wasn’t keeping people within the boundaries of the rules that was so difficult; rather the challenge was that certain people mistook abiding by the letter of the law with actually doing what is right.  Not the same.

Ironically it was an “expert in the law” who questioned Jesus about the most important commandment, for which he already knew the correct answer.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself,” the man quoted from Deuteronomy.  But being a strict rule follower he challenged Jesus further to clarify who exactly is one’s neighbor.  That’s when Jesus launched into perhaps his most famous parable, the story of the Good Samaritan.  We all know it well.  A man was lying beside the road half dead after being beaten and robbed.  A priest and a Levite each passed by without offering help – perfectly legal according to the Law.  But a Samaritan came along and stopped to render aid – doing what is right, beyond simply abiding by the letter of the law.

Unfortunately, we need laws, rules, regulations and policies to provide structure and order, and we can only expect more to be forthcoming.  The only other remedy is character – doing what is right, beyond simply abiding by the letter of the law.

“Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways. . .”  – Psalm 25:7 

“When I was a boy of fourteen,” Mark Twain once said reflecting on his adolescence, “my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Of course, the comedy in this story lies in Mark Twain’s cleverness at self-deprecation, which was not at all aimed at his father’s ignorance but his own – or perhaps more politely his own immaturity.  I can sympathize with Mark Twain, for as a teenager I must surely have been guilty from time to time of sharing the same sentiments about my own father before experiencing at a more mature age an epiphany about his wisdom.  But later my ignorance – or immaturity I should say – carried on in other ways.  For instance, in my twenties and thirties I considered people in their sixties and seventies to be old.  But by the time I began to approach that age myself I was astonished how much younger in a mere thirty or forty years that age group had become.

Maturity is always life’s best teacher, and in fact the only source for gaining true wisdom.  The problem is there are no shortcuts for accumulating it, only time and experience.  Too often we lament the mistakes and missteps of our youth.  “Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways . . .” King David once begged of God in a prayer recorded in Psalm 25.  Although David’s sins and rebellious ways – as well as our own mistakes and transgressions – may remain regretful to us they are nonetheless teaching moments and stepping stones along our pathway toward maturity.

So we continue to travel down that pathway, even though in this life we can never hope to gain complete wisdom.  But we do pick some up little by little as we progress in our respective journeys through life.  And it’s astonishing how much one can learn in just seven years – even more so thirty or forty.