With Thanksgiving

Thankfulness is an act of faith. When we find ourselves overwhelmed by pain, loss, and difficulty, it takes faith to look beyond ourselves and the immediate—beyond the things that are bigger than us, beyond our own powerlessness, and beyond our own expectations.

Thanksgiving, like forgiveness, is not cheap. It costs our fixation on what we want as we celebrate what we have. It costs our resentment towards things in our past as we live in the present. It costs humility to realize we did not do it on our own.

This can be hard. Thankfulness is a radical reordering of our priorities. To be thankful is to live in the present rather than the past or future. It is to acknowledge what is good even when there may be a great deal that is wrong. It means being thankful for peanut butter when we want filet mignon.

The good news is that when we’re mindful of the things for which we can be thankful, the difficulties and disappointments in our lives have less power over us.

• When we’re thankful, we can find opportunities amid challenges.
• When we’re thankful, our troubles and difficulties don’t disappear, but they lose much of their power over us.
• When we’re thankful, we’re more likely to look for what we can do rather than what we can’t.
• When we’re thankful, we are aware of what we have rather than only what we’re missing.
• When we’re thankful, we are aware of what we can give rather than only what we want.