Gratitude from Strangers

Dr. Tina Campbell November 22, 2016

In this season of Thanksgiving, I am writing to thank you on behalf of people you will probably never meet. In the past month, I have delivered over 1,000 books to the library system for the Arizona Department of Corrections, and many of these books have come from you.

There are several things about your gifts that have spiritual significance and are deserving of focus and appreciation. There is a clear Biblical mandate that we visit the prisoner, and you have responded to that by offering Arizona inmates hours of respect and companionship through reading your shared books. We are also asked to give anonymously, and I have been very touched to open my office door and see large boxes and bags of books placed there anonymously with the clear understanding they will be delivered to the prisons in Arizona.

The fact of the matter is inmates are not a “popular” or “trendy” focus for philanthropy or even compassion. Many people have the opinion “lock 'em up and throw away the key.” Therefore, there are virtually no donations to the prison libraries and there are no state funds available to replenish empty shelves. Jesus reminds us that we are to visit the prisoner and to consider them part of our spiritual family.

The law of the land states that incarceration, or separation from society, is in and of itself the punishment for conviction of a crime. Once incarcerated, inmates are paying the price for their misdeeds. Jesus reminds us that it is not our place to condemn, judge or dismiss our wider church, and Jesus reminds us that prisons are our wider church.

From a compassionate point of view, we share a big wide world of reading when we donate our books, and many of us consider reading to be a spiritual experience. Interestingly, the staff of the Department of Corrections considers it a security issue, because they view an inmate who is reading as an inmate who is not causing trouble. Either view is evidence of the importance of books being available to inmates.

The reading level of inmates is from the inability to read to Ph.D.. Some inmates have read every book in their prison library, and some inmates read to others who are illiterate. Some inmates find what they read to be life changing and others simply escape for a few hours while enjoying a good yarn. Some inmates find employment in prison libraries. Most of the books are used until they fall apart.

I thank all of you who have shared your books. Books are friends, and offer invaluable companionship. You have reached out and created relationships with strangers, and you have followed Jesus' mandate to visit the prisoner. On behalf of each inmate who opens your books, I thank you.

If you would care to donate books to the Arizona Department of Corrections libraries, just leave them in the office, and I will deliver them personally. For your generosity, I give thanks, and wish you all the blessings of the Thanksgiving season.

Category: Gratitude, Compassion, Thanksgiving, Prison, Books

Ash Wednesday

Thanksgiving Thank-You Notes

Rev. Kelsy Brown November 24, 2014

Growing up far away from extended family, my family and a few friends who needed a Thanksgiving home would sit down for a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, veggies, and pie for dessert. We spent the day playing games, watching movies together and, of course, calling family who lived far away. Each Thanksgiving we would go around the table and share what we were thankful for, as our blessing over our meal.

The pilgrims, on the first Thanksgiving many years ago, had a little different feel. They celebrated this day because they survived. The people had made it to the new land and had figured out how to live with the native people and how to farm the land. They built shelters and worked together to make it to that cold day of celebration.

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Thanksgiving might be a day of cooking all day and finally eating a fantastic feast together! We sit down with family and friends to give thanks for the bounty that has been provided for us. Maybe Thanksgiving is the day to watch football or be with family and friends. Or maybe Thanksgiving is the time to start setting up your Christmas decorations.

Yesterday, as I was thinking about what this day means to me, I received a thank-you note in the mail. The note was from a friend, and she was thanking me for a phone call we had a few weeks ago…but that part doesn’t matter; what does matter is how it made me feel to receive the note. It didn’t have a lot in it but the fact that she took the time to write it and mail it made me feel special. It made me wonder what it would be like to write a thank-you note to God for the many gifts he has given me. What would I say? What would I include?

Many of the Psalms are basically thank-you notes written to God. They are the Israelites' way of thanking God for what he provided to them—thanksgiving for safety (Psalm 91 and Psalm 144), thanksgiving for guidance (Psalm 146 and 23), thanksgiving for forgiveness (Palm 51), thanksgiving for the many blessings (Psalm 136 and Psalm 150), and my favorite, Psalm 100, thanksgiving that we know God. What a true blessing it is to be known by God and to know God. Each psalm is beautifully crafted to express the gratitude the people had for the gifts God gave them.

What would you put in your thank-you note written to God on Thanksgiving Day? Below are a few of mine.

Thank you for the beauty of the desert, the dry landscape that flourishes reminds me that even in the midst of struggle, God brings life.
Thank you for my dog, Calvin, for he brings comfort, laugher, friendship and warm snuggles.
Thank you for my family, who supports each other, laughs together and loves each other.
Thank you for your church filled with warm and faithful people who seek God in their life.
Thank you for my morning walks where all is still silent and I can almost feel the Holy Spirit waking us up with a beautiful sunrise.
Thank you for Jesus, who guides me, walks with me and challenges me in my call and work.

May God bless you and keep you on this Thanksgiving week!

Category: Ash Wednesday, Giving, Relationships, Rev. Kelsy Brown, Thanksgiving

Rev. Frank Harmon

The Leftovers

Rev. Frank Harmon November 27, 2013

In 2 Chronicles 20, on the verge of war we read, “After consulting the people [The Israelites], Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of hisholiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”

Like the Israelites, we often have to be reminded to give thanks to God. When I think about it, I wonder if we forget to give thanks because we take God’s love for granted because it endures forever, it is always there, and it doesn’t cost us anything.

While I was in seminary I purchased my first car on my own. It was not a fancy car, a 1996 Ford Explorer, but it was mine. I had worked hard for it and because of that I took care of it. I took care of it because I knew how much I had worked to get it. I knew how much it would cost to replace it. I never had the luxury of taking it for granted because from day one I had problems with it. Including dropping the transmission in it the first week I owned it… luckily I had a warranty. Every time I got in it and it started, I was grateful for a car that I could use. When things cost us something or they are unreliable we tend to not take them for granted. However, when things always work or they are always there, we tend to do the opposite. It happens with cars, employees, co-workers, our jobs, our health, our significant other, and yes-even God.

Often times in our lives we spend so much time dealing with the chaos and brokenness, that we sometimes neglect the things that deserve the most attention. It really becomes apparent over the holidays. During the holidays, not in the normal chaotic week, we bring out our “good” dishes. We unbox the real silver and use the nice place settings. Three or four times a year we use the “good” stuff, the rest of the time we use the not so “good” stuff. Why is it that the people we eat dinner with every day, those we care about the most, only get our “best” stuff once in a while? The answer seems to be that most days we are dealing with chaos and when we get home all we have to give those who are closest to us, those who are always there, those who love us the most, are the leftovers.

For some of us the same might be said about our relationship with God. We know God is always going to be there. We know that God is always going to love us. It is because of that we often find ourselves taking God for granted and only giving God our “Best” a fraction of the time.

So here is what I am proposing…What if this Advent we switched the paradigm? What if every day during Advent we used our “good” dishes every day with the ones we love. What if we give our best energy to our families and friends and not just the leftovers? And what if we make God the true reason for this season?

I propose that this can be accomplished in three simple steps.

1. Start your morning with prayer. Set your alarm for 15 minutes earlier than usual. Spend time with God. Even if you are struggling. Even if you are dreading facing the day. Say, “Hello. Good morning God. Please be with me today and guide my decisions in every way.”

2. Pause before responding. Holidays often make us frantic and words may at times escape us before thoughtful concern. I do not know what your family is like but when mine gets together teasing sometimes ensues. It is meant out of a comfortable feeling with each other but things quickly escalate when outdoing one another becomes the game. I suggest a pause and a gentle laugh. Let your words be true and sometimes the best way to do that is to be silent.

3. Most importantly, really look at your loved ones. I am not talking about a creepy stare that will make others wonder what you are doing. As your kids are playing, as your sitting around the table, take a theoretical step back and observe the simple beauty that is sometimes hard to recognize.

This holiday season let’s not simply give God one or two days of thanks, but every day. Let’s make every day a day that we say thank you to God, because in the chaos of our lives one thing is for certain, “God’s love endures for ever,” and that is something we should never take for granted. What is stopping us from giving our best to the most important things in our lives every day? Only us.

Category: Rev. Frank Harmon, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

I Give Thanks

Rev. Terry Swicegood October 30, 2013

In Philippians 1 the apostle Paul writes: I give thanks in remembrance of you.

I give thanks. Praise to God is therapy, and gratitude is always medicine for our souls.

Garrison Keillor was raised in a Protestant fundamentalist sect, the Plymouth brethren. In one of his writings, called a "Poem of Praise," we see how his Christian background permeates his thinking:

"The inability to give praise," he writes "is a deadly sin...and probably is an offshoot of the sin of pride because it is at the heart of a refusal to pay attention to things; to see what there is to see and to see miracles and gifts for what they are. Pitiful to be so absorbed by our own desires...that we cannot recognize those small and frequent miracles by which we live."

There was a family who waited with delight the birth of their fifth child. When she was born, she had no arms and legs. This was a family with great resilience and courage, so instead of spending a lot of energy in feeling sorry for themselves, they gave the little girl everything they could under the circumstances. She lived to be 21, a delightful human being, with a incisive mind, quick wit, and many friendships--although in those 21 years she was never able to dress or feed herself.

One Easter, her older brother brought home his college roommate. After watching this girl's life for three days, he blurted out, "What keeps you from exploding with anger at whatever kind of God would let you be born in the world with this kind of condition?"

The girl looked him straight in the eye and said, "I realize that compared to what most people have, what I have doesn't seem like much. But listen, I wouldn't have missed being born for anything. I've been able to see. I've been able to smell, to taste and feel. I've been exposed to some of the world's great literature. I've heard some of the finest music ever composed. I've had some of the most wonderful friendships that anybody could ever have. I know what I have doesn't seem like much when compared to what other people have, but compared to never getting to be at all, I wouldn't have missed being born for anything."

I give thanks. Like Paul, even in the toughest of situations, this woman discovered a multitude of blessings.

My wife and I have developed a little dinner exercise. Before our blessing, we both say what we are thankful for during the day. Try it yourself. You will be amazed at all the small miracles that came your way.

Category: Thanksgiving