Thanksgiving and Forgiving

Spirituality column #54
November 20, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Thanksgiving and Forgiving
By Bob Walters

Thanksgiving, the holiday thing, got me to thinking about thanksgiving, the God thing. That led me to think that the most powerful thing we can do …

for God is to give thanks,
for Christ is to love our enemies,
for the Holy Spirit is to pray,
for human beings is to forgive each other.

Give thanks
It’s easy to thank God for the good stuff – “good” here meaning “comfortable.” At Thanksgiving dinner this prayer is: “Dear God thank You for this abundant meal before us, these loved ones present, and the warmth of this home.”

A great prayer, for sure, but in hard times we must be able to pray earnestly, “Father God, I give thanks for this opportunity to grow closer to You, and to seek Your glory amid this difficulty.”

Love enemies
Loving our enemies is tough, but less so if we recalibrate who we consider to be “our enemies.” Only Satan, the ultimate enemy, is the exception to this rule. Jesus wants to work with the good in each of us despite our sin. Can we work with the good in others despite their sin, and our sin?

Prayer
The Holy Spirit is in us to activate the whole of God’s presence: faith, hope, love, understanding, trust … and prayer. I really do believe the Spirit is in everyone, even though it is plain not everyone taps into It. The way to true prayer is to ask the Holy Spirit to help us pray, and the Holy Spirit knows when we really want the help.

Forgiveness
Forgiveness, when you think about it, is the opposite of pride. And pride – “me before God” – is the No. 1, most common, most debilitating, withdraw-myself-from-God sin in humanity. Pick a sin, and pride’s probably the root of it. A truly forgiving heart is a free heart. Freedom is the key to God’s love … and God’s love is the only completely eternal thing we can know in both this life and the next.

Funny, the deepest earthly victories we can win are things we have to give away freely – love and forgiveness. Wasn’t that Christ’s message on the Cross?

I’m thankful for that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thinks the most enabling, powerful things we can do for Satan are to doubt God’s existence, deny Christ’s power, reject the presence of the Holy Spirit, and hold grudges.