Eureka! The gold I discovered in gratefulness

Average Americans are walking into this holiday season with tougher financial constraints than they’ve had in decades.

As I noted in my recent column, “Make America Affordable Again,” the Washington Post reported, “Grocery prices have jumped by 25 percent over the past four years, outpacing overall inflation of 19 percent during the same period.”

“Stubbornly high grocery prices represent a critical drain on the finances of tens of millions of people and remain, along with housing, perhaps the most persistent economic challenge for the Biden administration as it tries to convince Americans the economy is back on solid footing. For all the attention on gas prices and housing, more than two-thirds of voters say inflation has hit them hardest through higher food prices. …That’s more than 50 percentage points higher than any other category.” (“High inflation made finances worse for 65% of Americans last year.”)

To compound their financial woes, the average American consumer now carries $6,329 in credit card debt.

Why? “People are stretched,” experts say.

So, how are stretched Americans supposed to afford holiday travel, gatherings and gifts this year without going deeper into debt?

Economic hope may be on the horizon with a new Trump presidency, but hardships still rule the roost in the lives of most Americans as we approach this Thanksgiving and Christmas.

On top of their financial struggles, myriad Americans face additional trials, tribulations and even tragedy, testing them to the core of their being.

And so, the big question this week is: “How can we, particularly those who have been gravely affected by tough times, be thankful this Thanksgiving?”

While I never minimize or tritely deal with anyone’s hardships, the answer is found, I believe, in rediscovering the hope of the original pilgrims.

Before you disagree because of what you’re facing, or don’t think it applies to you, let me explain.

Those upon whom the first Thanksgiving was founded, the Pilgrims who landed in 1620 at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, were those who also discovered the power to give thanks even in the midst of hardship, suffering, disease and death.

Though they came to a new land, the Pilgrims were by no means foreigners to the territory of pain and suffering.

Of the 102 original voyagers who set sail on the Mayflower to the New World, only 53 lived through the first winter.

History.com explained:

The colonists spent the first winter living onboard the Mayflower. Only 53 passengers and half the crew survived. Women were particularly hard hit; of the 19 women who had boarded the Mayflower, only five survived the cold New England winter, confined to the ship where disease and cold were rampant. The Mayflower sailed back to England in April 1621, and once the group moved ashore, the colonists faced even more challenges.

During their first winter in America, more than half of the Plymouth colonists died from malnutrition, disease and exposure to the harsh New England weather. In fact, without the help of the area’s native people, it is likely that none of the colonists would have survived. An English-speaking Abenaki named Samoset helped the colonists form an alliance with the local Wampanoags, who taught them how to hunt local animals, gather shellfish and grow corn, beans and squash.

H.W. Westermeyer couldn’t have said it better: “The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts … nevertheless, [they] set aside a day of thanksgiving.”

The Pilgrims, who were originally known as Christian Separatists and Puritans or “first-comers” and “forefathers,” crossed the Atlantic and faced their first treacherous winter with the comfort of their Geneva Bible, a translation made in 1560. (Though the King James Version was published in 1611, it was not yet popular when the Pilgrims came to America.)

In their Geneva Bible, they read the life-changing words in one small verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which offers this great challenge and encouragement: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

It’s that word “all” that must have provided a particular challenge for the Pilgrims as well for many of us.

And yet in that single word was also the remedy for their (as well as our) downcast souls.

That verse doesn’t say give thanks “for” all circumstances, but “in” all circumstances. There’s a big difference in those little words – think about it!

And it doesn’t say, “feel thanks,” but “give thanks.”

Like those who serve in our great military, thanksgiving is a duty before it’s a feeling.

Giving thanks is still a choice – a discipline, especially in times of trial and hardship.

What the “Thanksgiving verse” is saying is find something, anything, to be thankful for “in” even the toughest of times. If we do, our spirits will be lifted. We will experience the light at the end of life’s dark tunnels.

In tough times, in particular, we must call up our gratefulness reserves.

As Helen Keller, who saw and heard further than most of us without the senses of sight or hearing, explained it: “So much has been given to me, I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.”

Dare I say, if someone like Helen can do it, there is definitely hope for all of us to see that we are still more blessed than we suffer.

Though it is definitely not always easy, it is always possible to list our assets alongside our losses.

Bottom line, God prescribed our thanks-living in all circumstances because He knew it would make us happier (and even healthier).

Harvard Health Medical School & Publishing concurs.

That is exactly what the academic agency reported, when it said that several scientific studies have concluded, “Giving Thanks Can Make You Happier.”

That might be a surprise to everyone except the Pilgrims and theologians, for that truth is more than 2,000 years old.

Though Thanksgiving is commemorated once a year, giving thanks was never intended to be bound up in a single day.

Gratitude is a seasoning for all seasons of life.

Thanksgiving is a school from which we should never graduate.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a prisoner and martyr under Adolf Hitler, concluded, “It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

You might say, “Easy for you to say, Chuck.” But it’s not, not always.

I’ve had tough times, too. I’m tested like anyone else. But one thing I know is: The older I get, the more grateful I am, for the good, the bad, and even in the ugly.

Thanksgiving is still born in adversity, so perhaps, respectfully speaking, it will mean even more to many of us this year than in years past.

That’s why I truly believe there may not be a better year for Thanksgiving in our lifetime than this one.

Thanksgiving is still a holiday for the courageous, those who face their fears and fight to remain thankful.

With all this in mind, I’d encourage and challenge Americans this Thanksgiving in particular to heed the call of William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, who, in 1623, challenged his people with these words (maybe you might even want to share or read them before you eat your Thanksgiving meal):

Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

Fellow Americans, more than ever before, Gena and I wish you and yours the happiest, most blessed and THANK-FILLED Thanksgivings!

(A must-see holiday movie this week is the inspiring and engaging blockbuster, “Bonhoeffer: The Untold True Story,” by Angel Studios. Watch the trailer here. Get tickets here soon, as 118 theaters across the nation are already sold out!)