“And have a Happy Thanksgiving!”
“Oh yeah…thanks!”
It was the shortened Thanksgiving week and as I completed my phone conversations with client’s offices, I ended with this phrase. After several encounters, I noticed a trend. The majority of the offices would not return my well wishes. Instead of the usual, “Happy Thanksgiving!” it was an awkward exchange, as illustrated above. Disheartening, but not unexpected.
Several years ago, this trend began with Christmas when “Merry Christmas” was replaced with “Happy Holidays”. It has now spread to Thanksgiving. Any reference to religious overtones or the origins of the holiday are quietly being put away or worse. Politically correct pundits and their social media allies have attacked the Thanksgiving holiday as an example of racism, symbolic of the injustices that white Americans have perpetrated upon native Americans and other non-white races. The flowery and idyllic scenes portrayed in movies and paintings belie the often hostile relations between the first European settlers in America and native Americans. Protests have increased and have called for Thanksgiving to be a “National Day of Mourning” rather than a day to give thanks to God, as was the original intent when President Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863. “I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
It is easy to be discouraged by the social reconditioning that is pervasive in our society. Even when the initial intentions are noble, there will always be those who seek out the darkest motives, encouraging others to shame and publicly cancel events. By the subtle shifts in our greetings, it may be succeeding. Man even tries in vain to undo the work of God, but this will never succeed. For over two thousand years, cynics have dismissed Jesus Christ as merely a good man and a gifted teacher. Others, including some churches claiming to be Christian, proffer a more generous opinion that Jesus is one of many gods.
With nearly everything man has planned or created, there may be dark undertones and origins that may gloss over sinister details. Only God’s creations are perfect, unchanging, and initiated with purest of intentions. His plans, like His Word, stand forever.
The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes.
But the LORD’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.
Psalms 33:10-11 (NLT)
God will never be mocked or denied. Jesus Christ is God and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This Thanksgiving, I gave thanks to my Lord for His grace and mercy to my life and His abundant blessings. I pray that others will focus on the blessings of God rather than the complaints of man.
Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.
The Bereans Blog 