This week we celebrate Thanksgiving! Yes, Turkey Day is finally here! And if tradition holds true, on this one day, the sin of gluttony is conveniently and joyfully ignored! And we are thankful for it, aren’t we?
And then on Saturday, one of the greatest football games of all time will be taking place, Ohio State is playing TTUN, but hardly anybody will be watching that. (Right!)
Traditionally (I’ve been doing this long enough that it could be called a tradition, could it not?), my articles this week have focused on one of those two events – either Thanksgiving or the football game on Saturday. But this year, I would like to take a different tactic. This week, I would like for us to think about the day in between those two phenomenal events: It is commonly called “Black Friday.”
“Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Following the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, it is the official kickoff for the Christmas holiday shopping season and there are massive bargains to be found – if you get in line early enough!
The day officially begins at midnight, but it actually has been going on for several weeks if you take into account that every retail establishment, it seems, on the face of the earth (well, maybe not that many!) has been advertising – and selling their products at reduced prices in an attempt to get the jump on all those who will not begin their “Black Friday Sales” until – well – until Black Friday!
I find it interesting, and, in a macabre sort of way, entertaining, to think about this day following one of the most selfless and grateful holidays of the year.
I will never forget that one Thanksgiving night when I drove from our house in Hillsboro to Columbus to the airport to pick up our son who was flying in for the weekend. His plane was arriving at midnight, so I was making the trip late on Thanksgiving night. As I passed by the exit where the outlet mall is located, I was absolutely amazed to see all the people who were seemingly desperate to get in line for the sales which would begin at midnight in those stores located there. The traffic was so dense that people were actually parking on the shoulders of the Interstate (I-71) and walking to the mall from there (Isn’t that a no-no?). On the return trip, which was after midnight, we saw even more cars and people lined up on the highway!
On Black Friday, the massive numbers of people lining up to get in line for those sales is enlightening, if you think about it. Those very same people who had been such grateful and humble little lambs on Thanksgiving Day turn into vicious angry wolves just a few hours later, out to grab whatever they can before the next person can get it simply because it is on sale!
Some people look at prayer that way. Oh, yes, we should be thankful and all that on Thanksgiving – after all God has provided. But if we do not get what we want when we want it, then we become selfishly vicious and vindictive. And if we are not careful, we will do like so many, and give up, asking very simply, “Why pray”. One author put it this way:
“Why should I spend an hour in prayer when I do nothing during that time but think about people I am angry with, people who are angry with me, books I should read, and books I should write, and thousands of other silly things that happen to grab my mind for a moment?
“The answer is: because God is greater than my mind and my heart and what is really happening in the house of prayer is not measurable in terms of human success and failure.
“What I must do first of all is to be faithful. If I believe that the first commandment is to love God with my whole heart, mind, and soul, then I should at least be able to spend one hour a day with nobody else but God. The question as to whether it is helpful, useful, practical, or fruitful is completely irrelevant, since the only reason to love is love itself. Everything else is secondary.
“The remarkable thing, however, is that sitting in the presence of God for one hour each morning—day after day, week after week, month after month—in total confusion and with myriad distractions radically changes my life. God, who loves me so much that he sent his only son not to condemn me but to save me, does not leave me waiting in the dark too long. I might think that each hour is useless, but after thirty or sixty or ninety such useless hours, I gradually realize that I was not as alone as I thought; a very small, gentle voice has been speaking to me far beyond my noisy place.
“So, be confident and trust in the Lord.” (Credit: Henri Nouwen)
Did you get the gist of what Nouwen is saying? Instead of being greedy and grabby and grouchy when we don’t get what we want, we should be gentle and gracious and grateful. Instead of being critical and cranky, we should be confident and joyfully content to trust the Lord.
So this year, may I offer this challenge: instead of “Black” Friday, let’s follow “Thanks” Thursday with “Prayer” Friday, okay? (and then “Buckeye” Saturday!)
God bless…
Chuck Tabor is a regular columnist for this newspaper and a former pastor in the area. He may be reached at [email protected].
