Thanksgiving Leftovers...

The Thanksgiving holiday came and went with the usual overeating on my part. The wife made a particularly delicious corn casserole that I relished the thought eating for days with leftovers, only to find that she’d unceremoniously dumped it after a day in an effort to make room in the refrigerator. I was not happy about it in the least bit.

There were a couple of other things about the Thanksgiving holiday that raised my dander a bit. Okay, maybe more than a bit...

Thanksgiving itself has become more and more just a prelude to commercialistic Christmas. Black Friday has seeped into Thanksgiving night (or afternoon) shopping. I went into the local Walmart on Thanksgiving morning to pickup some last minute items for the big meal that afternoon. I walked by pallet after pallet after pallet of cellophane wrapped items marked with the times, i.e. 8:00PM, 10:00PM, etc, that each pallet of stuff would be unwrapped for shopping availability.

I didn’t look too closely at the items, but I did notice that there wasn’t anything there that I would wade into the masses to fight over. In fact, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would, but the next day I watched a video of a chaotic crowd fighting over the items on one such video. If you have a minute check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AdTdacgp1Y

It’s beyond bothersome that as a society we’ve come to this point of materialistic idolatry. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12:15 "...be on your guard empathically against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" was pretty much thrown out the window in that crowd.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t lay the blame on WalMart or any other business. They are merely taking full advantage of what we’ve become as a society. But the real victim is a once-cherished holiday tradition of giving thanks to God for our many blessings that has deteriorated to this current sad state of affairs...

On Thanksgiving weekend, I took the family to a afternoon matinee of the movie Life of Pi. It was a 3D flick about a boy and a tiger, or at least that’s what I thought. What we sat through was a movie which had a not-so-subtle spiritual message that there exists many paths leading to God, and, as long as you believe in something, anything, you’d experience your spiritual awakening and a relationship with the Almighty.

The main character was a Hindu/Muslim/Christian. As the narrator of the film, he told the story of being a believer in all three religions. Let me say emphatically, there is no such thing as a Hindu/Muslim/Christian. Pi’s own father said it best when he told his son, "If you believe in everything, you believe in nothing." I can’t speak on first two religious beliefs, but when Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)," He meant just that. This movie was basically making Christ a liar and I’m regretful that I supported it with my money. Don’t go and do likewise.

I long for the day when as a nation we fall on our collective knees and cry out to God for forgiveness for our waywardness and truly thank the Almighty for how blessed we are as a country. In his original proclamation that set forth the holiday we now know as Thanksgiving, President Abraham Lincoln stated it was "a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." It speaks volumes about our country, and our President, that this year,  Barack Obama’s Thanksgiving proclamation failed to mention God completely...for the fourth year in a row.