Thanksgiving thoughts...

So at the daycare we've been trying to press into the brains of the preschool class why we actually celebrate Thanksgiving. For some reason I've been finding it really interesting, so although you probably know, please allow me to refresh you.

So some pilgrims came to North America long before it had been really settled by western society to find religious freedom from the Anglican church. The winter after they arrived proved to be quite harsh. Their houses and shelters did not do enough to keep them warm and there was not enough food to go around and as a result, many died. The following spring, however was quite fruitful. The natives helped them big time by teaching them how to hunt and gather and plant foods like corn. The pilgrims prospered and the harvest was plentiful or something like that. So the governor called for a feast to celebrate and give thanks to God for all He had done for them.

There area a few reasons why this story is so interesting to me. I think it's a pretty important piece of Church history, as they were the first group of Christians to settle in North America. What's also so fascinating is the mass amount of religious content in the story. The name "pilgrim" is literally a person on a religious journey. The fact that the Holiday is called "Thanksgiving" assumes that these religious people were giving thanks, most obviously to God. What's also overlooked and incredibly interesting is that these celebrated pilgrims were Puritans, an ultra conservative group of Christians. You could quite justifiably label them "extremists." In our society, being a super conservative Christian isn't often looked at positively, yet we follow in their footsteps by celebrating Thanksgiving with them every year. Really, if we take a serious look at it's roots, Thanksgiving is a strong Christian holiday where we observe the feast of the Puritan pilgrims and are meant to follow in their footsteps by giving God our own thanks for what He has done for us.

One more interesting point- The story of Thanksgiving points out that the Church's first relationship with the American natives was a very positive one, with cooperation and acceptance across the board. They even invited the Natives to join their feast of giving thanks to God. Very incarnational and relational. Possibly even a postmodern(ish?) attempt at evangelism?

Anyway, those are just some interesting points I've been observing in the story of our religious feast of Thanksgiving. What are your thoughts?

Living life loudly

The other day I was really tired while driving to work. It had been a long week and a long weekend before. That made driving difficult. I needed to get to work, but I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. So I began to shout and sing loudly to keep myself from falling asleep.

I think that past morning was kind of a parable of my life recently. In order for me to remain spiritually awake and alert, I need to shout to the LORD and sing loudly. Shouting is often a great way to let your spirit express itself to God. Samuel Logan Brengle, one of the Salvation Army's early holiness theologians, once wrote an article about shouting that became part of his book Helps to Holiness. He says that nothing scares off the forces of Hell more quickly that a hearty, loud, honest shout of praise to the LORD. There's something about being loud to the LORD that excites our spirits and frightens the enemy.

So I'm going to shout. I need to sing praise and do it loudly. I need to shout and hoot and holler for the LORD, because I haven't been, even though I've wanted to, and I spiritually fell asleep. My life became drudgery and difficult and completely unsatisfying. I need to shout because it feels a little more like the abundant life Christ came to give me. Lord, help me to never be afraid to publicly shout your praises. Amen.