Do you get your thanks on yet?

Sometimes I think we completely miss the reason for thanksgiving! Really, it doesn't seem that complicated, but even so, I believe we miss the point of it all. Go ahead and prove me wrong.

Really quickly, make a list of all the things that give you cause for expressing thanks.

Tick. Toc.

Tick. Toc.

Tick. Toc.

Tick. Toc.

Seriously, make a quick list. It won't take you but a minute. I'll wait for you.

Tick. Toc.

Tick. Toc.

Tick. Toc.

Tick. Toc.

Okay. I trust you made the list.

So why are you Thankful this week?

Are you thankful for family? (That was on the list, right?)

• Get this, when the Pilgrims first celebrated thanksgiving most of those at the table had buried loved ones in the previous year. (Funerals do not usually elicit an outburst of thanksgiving).

Are you thankful for your health?

• Again, not on the Pilgrim Thanksgiving menu. Disease and plague had devastated the Pilgrim community in the year prior to thanksgiving: out of 18 married women, only 5 survived that first year; out of 29 single men, only 10 survived that first year; only 3 families in the entire community did not have a death in the family year.

Are you thankful for the freedoms that you enjoy?

• Again, not so much for the pilgrims. They were religious refugees. King James (yes the same dude who gave us the KJV bible); had outlawed the worship of the Pilgrims. Things were so bad that the wilderness of an unknown land looked like a great option. Freedom was not at the top of their gratitude list.

Okay, so you probably get the idea.

Thanksgiving isn't about abundance. It isn't about stuff. It isn't about what we have or what we can lose. Thanksgiving is not about our condition or circumstance.

Listen to a story. 1 Kings 17.

Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 "Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food." 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" 11 As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."

12 "As surely as the Lord your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread-only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it-and die."

You can look up the rest of the story. But the next thing you know the widow does as she is told and feeds Elijah.

I'll tell you right now, the story says nothing about her expressing gratitude with words.

She doesn't thank Elijah or God for the hardship she endures.

But in the end she confesses she knows (and trusts) in the Word of God.

She must have. He spoke the truth long before Paul ever penned the words of scripture in Romans 5:

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Thanksgiving is ultimately an expression of trust and confidence in God. Did you get your thanks on yet? Get on with it!