The Wheatland Mission

A Thoughtful Thanksgiving by Mike Metzger

Here are some great thoughts about Thanksgiving:

November 15, 2005

MINDLESS MANTRAS
AAA repeatedly warns us – for good reasons – that most auto accidents occur within 25 miles of your home. That's a no-brainer, since most of our driving happens to take place within 25 miles of home! In this case, familiarity not only breeds contempt... it nurtures negligence. Take Thanksgiving. Most of us are so familiar with the annual routine of turkey, stuffing, and shopping that it too has become something of a no-brainer. But gratitude – or thoughtful thankfulness – might launch a discussion over the dinner table that lasts long after the last leftover turkey sandwich is gone.

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the 20th century's best known journalists, authors, debaters, and social observers. Born in London, his writing – punctuated with wit and humor – brought him acclaim until his death. Yet it was gratitude that grabbed him and launched a journey that changed his life. "If my children wake up on Christmas morning and have somebody to thank for putting candy in their stockings, have I no one to thank for putting two feet in mine?"1 The answer, for many years, was that Chesterton didn't have anyone. It left a hole in his soul but launched a personal journey – why do we express gratitude at all? And do we realize what we're saying?

Chesterton discovered that gratitude is one of many "signals of transcendence" – human experiences that seem to point to a greater reality. They are universal, instinctive; yet assume and require answers that lie beyond themselves.2 Chesterton's discovery began when he observed we invariably express gratitude in cosmic dimensions ("thank God I'm alive!!!") without giving it a great deal of thought. And just as C. S. Lewis noted that hunger does not prove that bread exists – but it does point to the fact that we repair our bodies by eating – so too Chesterton believed saying thank you does not prove that God exists. But it does point to Something Beyond – just as when we calm a scared child during a violent thunderstorm by saying "Everything's going to be all right." If you think about it, that's misleading – but it points to our desire for transcendent assurances about life.

G. K. Chesterton's journey into thoughtful gratitude brought him to faith. That surprised many of his colleagues and friends, who didn't associate Chesterton with God. But in his autobiography, Chesterton asked whether people cannot be genuinely grateful without connecting it to theology:


To which I answer, "Yes; I mean he cannot do it without connecting it with theology, unless he cannot do it without connecting it to thought. If he can manage to be thankful when there is nobody to be thankful to, and no good intentions to be thankful for, then he is simply taking refuge in being thoughtless in order to avoid being thankless."3
Aristotle described people with "weak minds" as those who take refuge in banal generalities (such as saying "Happy Thanksgiving" without giving it much thought). Perhaps this year you'll think long and hard about gratitude and celebrate a Thoughtful Thanksgiving. That kind of thankfulness might even launch a dinner table conversation that connects Sunday to Thursday!

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1 G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (San Francisco: Ignatius Reprint, 1995)
2 This term was developed by Peter Ludwig Berger, a University Professor and Director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture at Boston University. This phrase is taken from his book A Rumor of Angels (New York: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1990), pp.59-65.
3 C. K. Chesterton, The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1936), pp.341-48.

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posted by The Wheatland Mission @ 6:43 AM