Season of Thankgivings - Here am I Lord, send me

While Christmas is an important time of the year, we as Christians should not limit ourselves to one weekend of thanks for those that have helped to shape and mentor our lives. I wrote last week that we are often impacted by folks we don’t even know personally. These are individuals that followed their passions and the lead of God in their lives who by doing so, touched and changed ours. I am pretty sure that I will never get over the Season of Thankgivings that have impacted me. The Bible has so many answers and motivations for us as Christians about why we should go and by going grow.
This is the week of Thanksgiving and for many they will be spending that time traveling and attempting to rush in one weekend visits to family members, and eating a meal on a time schedule as you can’t spend all day at one place, family duty calls to visit two families for most Americans. While I write this article I am extremely mindful of those that will also be spending this time alone. There are many situations that create this setting. For many it will be the death of a loved one, or children now removed from the home community and not able to gather around the family table. For some it is because their loved ones are serving our nation in the Armed Services. As I write this I am thinking of especially Erik Wesley Thomas and his friends who are serving in Iraq this Thanksgiving. I wrote in a letter to him on Veteran’s Day that I was rather confident his family looked at that day differently as this was their first experience with their child, brother, grandson and nephew who are in service to our Nation. I shared that it often takes experiences like that to change our minds and to cause us to reflect upon a Holiday such as Veteran’s Day differently. It is not a bad thing just that most of us don’t often count the cost of freedom on a regular occasion and we miss that blessing until it comes home to us.
Yes, there are many things that bring Thankgivings alive and well within us.
Thanksgiving is a perfect time for Christians to express thanks through service. In all our communities there are things that we can be involved in that will make a difference. Time doesn’t afford all of us the same opportunities but time does afford each of us the chance to make a difference. As I write this column I am in Haiti. I will be returning to the United States the day before Thanksgiving. I am in Haiti serving 8000 kids a deal meals as one of my personal efforts to make a difference. Haiti is the poorest country in the world. The hurricanes and the last earthquake here have left shanty shacks on the ground and millions with no place to call home. This is my third trip to Haiti and each time I have visited I have been reminded of the blessings I have. My Thanksgivings now are for folks that I never met personally. It is because of Individuals who believed that all the children of the world, red, yellow, black and white deserve an education and food to keep them from staving to-death I am here. The vision for these orphanages and these schools are the product of folks who believed they could make a difference. I pray my coming here encourages their family members as their vision lives on through folks they too have never met. When I return to the United States I will be preparing and serving Thanksgiving Meals through the church. Feeding folks here at home and I pray this too makes a difference.
There is much for us to do, and the fact is no one can do it alone. However, if just one person decided to walk along side another, the impact very well could last for generation upon generations.
This Holiday has passed, and while there yet remains days in the calendar month, there is always December if you too would like to make a difference. Right here at home. Volunteer with a group from a church, call up an organization you know cares about those who need us to care for them and volunteer. You can make a difference and you can find a spirit of Thanksgivings within your own life if you will only say “Here am I Lord, send me”.

Until then