Chaplains' Corner

Judy Pressler
State Chaplain
3011 Halfmoon Valley Road
Port Matilda, PA 16870
(814) 692-5217
jxp2@psu.edu
 

 

Thank You God Today

November – well, this month ought to be easy to write about. Should be able to fill the whole Advocate with ways to describe the feelings we get when someone mentions November. After all, this is the “month” with Thanksgiving Day!!

Isn’t it a shame that we 1) have to designate and set aside a special day to remind people to be thankful, 2) allude to, emphasize or support the notion that this is THE time to talk about our blessings and express our gratitude for all the “good’ things in our lives.

How do we come to this? According to Webster’s dictionary:

1) thanksgiving is an expression of gratitude, especially to God;
2) gratitude is to be grateful (from same Latin root gratus which also includes gratuitous meaning unearned and given without obligation and grace meaning divine love and protection bestowed freely on human beings voluntarily granted by God), e.g., a blessing;
3) blessing is having divine favor invoked upon to promote happiness, well-being or prosperity.

Why then, do we only acknowledge these blessings in late November? Or begin thinking about them when the weather turns cool and Christmas songs start playing in the stores and malls? Now, I know I am “speaking to the choir” and all the Advocate readers don’t need to read this one more time, but just in case.....

The story of the 10 lepers comes to mind. All of them cried out to Jesus to be healed. All obeyed Jesus when he told them to go to the priests. All were healed by the grace of God. All were surely excited and happy. All but one went their own way. The one (a Samaritan and despised by the Jews) returned, shouting and praising God. He was so grateful he threw himself at Jesus feet! What a testimony from an “outsider.” God was pleased with him!

That probably didn’t happen on a special day designated for giving thanks. So then neither should our praising God and giving thanks be limited to or brought to the forefront only on Thanksgiving Day.

How about you? Can you think of “time(s)” in the recent past that you have seen or felt God’s hand working in your life or someone else’s...have you felt blessed? And remember blessings sometimes come disguised as trials, disappointments, happy, exciting and fun experiences and totally baffling events for which we have no answers or understanding.

As I write this article, our hearts are saddened and heavy with the death of young Jonathan. Many other Grange families have experienced the loss of loved ones in the past few months. I have several friends who have been diagnosed with cancer in the past three weeks. More are fighting a valiant battle. Our Grange members are aging and having to make life changes.

Even in these dark moments, we can give thanks for God’s presence in our lives.

I usually try to tie our personal, spiritual and Grange lives into one bundle so I will share a real blessing that can cover all three. This was a happy time and probably seems easier to write about, but remember how only ONE leper remembered to give thanks!

Carl Meiss visited out Grange in September to work with us on “Where is Halfmoon Grange going?” One of the many thoughts and ideas we discussed was to have some functions that were just for fun and not for “funds.” We did just that. We planned an apple butter day, invited the community and encouraged all of our Grangers, active and not-so-active to participate either and/or in the snittin and stirrin and eatin and fellowshipin. Our aim was to sell enough to pay for the ingredients and give the rest to the helpers!

What a wonderful time we all had. God blessed us with beautifully cool (a little breezy around 3 a.m.) and then sunny weather, lots of worker bees (as well as some yellow jackets who were really excited about all that sweet smelling apple cider), cooked breakfast, bowls of hot soup and home made bread after the apple butter was all “jarred,” a wide variety of desserts, new friendships formed and old ones rejuvenated. We even had a crew winterize the windows by tacking up the plastic coverings!

I see this as one of our “daily” blessings that we tend to overlook in our busyness. We cried out for help. God heard us and used Carl to encourage and focus us. We stepped out in faith. Many people came: including members who attend regularly and some who made a special effort to be there, friends, community leaders and one person recuperating from cancer surgery. We had a “Thanksgiving Day” on October 20. “Glad to see you, thanks for the invite, had a great time and come again” were the words of the day. We know that the real thanks go to our God for All the blessings that made this day possible for us..

Thanksgiving Day should be every day....even if you’ve had a bad one....we don’t need more to be thankful for, we just need to be more thankful!

I thank God for all our Grange families and friends not just on Thanksgiving Day but every day.

DECEMBER CHALLENGE

After just completing an epistle on being thankful every day, it is pretty simple to follow up with the article about the holiday season we are embarking on. By the time you receive this Advocate, the Christmas music will be filling the air, party invitations and plans will be filling the calendar, packages will be filling the front closet, cookies and fruitcakes will be filling the tins and freezers.....but WAIT!

Will the people be filling the churches (and not just on Christmas Eve)? Will the Grangers be filling the meeting halls? Will the neighbors be filling the empty living rooms of shut-ins? Will love be filling the lonely hearts of families who have lost loved ones or who are scattered all around the world and even in harm’s way? Will the Holy Spirit be filling each of our hearts?

What a wonderful event we celebrate: the birth of the Christ Child. The Child who was sent by His Father to spend time here on earth and face the same hurdles, disappointments, temptations and even betrayals that depress us. God loved us so much that He gave His Son on Christmas as a gift to us.

His love is a gift that we don’t and can’t buy! The invitation is always pertinent. There’s always a party in heaven when a soul receives Jesus as his/her Savior. The choirs will be singing sweeter and louder when another heart is softened to let Him in. We are promised a special home and an eternity to enjoy the truly “Wonderful Life.”

So, our best gift this Christmas is to accept Jesus as our Savior, let the Holy Spirit guide us as the Star guided the Wise Men, and try to emulate God’s love to our “brothers & sisters” by brightening the dark corners in their worlds.

Let’s remember “Love Came Down at Christmas” in the “Little Town of Bethlehem” while “Shepherds Watched Their Flocks” and “Angels Sang...Glory to the Newborn King.” Remember how diligently the Wise Men kept going to “find” the “King of the Jews.”

Our lesson then is to diligently seek Him, thank God for his gift of love and pray that there will be “Peace on Earth and Let it Begin with Me.”

With a thankful heart for all God has done for us and to wish you and your family a blessed Holy holiday season.

Judy Pressler