Here’s something you probably don’t know about me. I
went to college to be an Opera Singer–on a scholarship, no less. No, I
won’t show you. Long story short, it wasn’t my calling.
My Opera career was doomed from the start for two,
not entirely unrelated, reasons. First, I don’t like Opera. Second,
I hated to practice and so I practiced as little as possible. Having the
capacity–the ability and the opportunity–to do something is essential.
But it is not sufficient. You also have to have the commitment to practice.
This is true for Opera singing–and also for gratitude.
We all have the ability and opportunity to give
thanks to God. Most of us understand that we have an infinite number
of reasons to be grateful. We also understand that the act of giving
thanks is generative and life-giving. And yet–our knowledge and ability
and opportunity amount to nothing until we (forgive me) just do it.
As a community, we are giving thanks this
month. I hope you’ll join us in our Thanks Giving Challenge and in
worship. We’ll be reading some of the Apostle Paul’s letters (Philippians
4:4-7, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) aboutthe necessity and power of
giving thanks, especially in times of grief and loss. But we aren’t
gathering to learn more or think more. We are gathering to practice.
Because the only way to become the joyful grateful people we already are in Christ is just to do the thing–to give thanks… so we will
be. I hope you’ll join us.
Peace,
Pastor Kate
YouTube-Thanks Giving Challenge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWGS2eB2R8
11/13/21 Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WjSeuKJFzA&t=3s
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