In a classic B.C. cartoon, The Cute Chick approaches The Fat Broad and asks, “What are you thankful for this year?” The Fat Broad, stirring a big pot over an open fire, shouts, “Are you kidding? Who has time to think about that on Thanksgiving?” While the humor of that cartoon brings a smile to our faces, with their dialogue, cartoonist Johnny Hart hits upon an irony of life.

The presence of Thanksgiving Day on our calendars and our celebration of it on that day does not guarantee that we will actually take time to be thankful. The busyness of the Thanksgiving holiday (i.e. making a trip to be with family, pulling together all the ingredients for the Thanksgiving meal and then preparing them) can steal either our spirit of thankfulness or our expression of thanks, or both. When you think about it, the busyness of life is not the only thief that can steal our thankfulness.

So can a spirit of entitlement. 

Alben Barkley was 35th VP of the US, who served under President Harry Truman. In his autobiography That Reminds Me, Alben Barkley , he tells about an experience he had on the campaign trail while running for reelection to the US Senate in Kentucky. While visiting a farmer he was shocked to learn the farmer planned to vote for his opponent. The Senator reminded the farmer of all the things he’d done for him while serving as prosecutor, county judge, congressman, and Senator. He’d facilitated construction of a road to his farm, he had visited him in the hospital when the farmer was wounded in WWI, had helped secure veteran benefits for him, had arranged a Farm Credit Administration loan for him, and had gotten him disaster relief for a flood that destroyed his home. Barkley asked, “How could you think of voting for my opponent? Surely you remember all the things I have done for you?” The man replied, “Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?”1 The farmer’s spirit of entitlement – that life in general and Barkley in particular owed him, stole his thankfulness. 

So can a worldview that does not allow for a Creator who has bestowed on us all the blessings of life we enjoy and benefit from.

When you believe life to be the product of an impersonal evolutionary process, who is there to thank for the intangibles of life (i.e. talents, personality, looks, etc.). We could thank Random Selection or Fate or Luck of the Draw, but what joy or satisfaction is there in that? Or who is there to thank for the beauty, orderliness, and dependability of the universe and particularly of the earth? Again, what joy and satisfaction would there be in expressing gratitude to Random Selection or Fate or Luck of the Draw? 

How can we thwart the efforts of busyness, entitlement, and a God-absent world view to steal our thankfulness? We can fight busyness by intentionally stopping the rush of life long enough to feel and express our thanks. We can fight entitlement with humility that does not allow us to feel life owes us. We can fight a God-absent worldview by taking on the spirit of the Psalmist in the Bible who says in Psalm 100 (NASB):

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting,and His faithfulness to all generations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

¹ That Reminds Me, Alben Barkley (1954, p. 165)