Thanksgiving: The Transformative Power of Gratitude

“Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).

“… And if you should count the favors of God, you could not enumerate them.” (Quran 14:34)

Well it’s Thanksgiving Day… again. (At least it is in the United States, my ancestral home.) And as it is the Year of Our Lord 2024, the memes are flowing online in the usual fashion. According to the Memes, what is Thanksgiving Day? Political fighting. Native American genocide. Black Friday brawls. Family animosity. And any number of grievances.

It is ironic that the very day that was set aside by our first American president, George Washington, as a day of prayer and gratitude to our Creator for the blessings in our life has become a litany of sorrows and cultural misgivings.

But Thanksgiving, in spite of our best efforts, has been the one holiday (aside from Arbor Day) which hasn’t been sufficiently and totally commercialized. How can one really commercialize a holiday which, at its core, is a holiday of recollection of our blessings? It is absurd. Which is why the cacophonic orgy of consumerism has been eternally banished to the Friday after Thanksgiving — as if the holy-day itself could not be tinged with such ugliness and our modern impulses pushed aside for a whole 24-hours explode with such violent force once unleashed from their dormant captivity.

But… I don’t want to tinge Thanksgiving with my own complaints.

A year ago, I wrote a piece on the importance of gratitude and of thanksgiving.

Now, a year later, I am revisiting this theme of gratitude.

Everything that we have is not our own. All good things — and even all trials and tribulations — are a blessing. Everything is given to us from the Lord for our growth in Love. When we are grateful, we draw closer to our Lord and to each other. This life is given to us as a gift. And whether good or bad — it is all a gift unto us. What do we do with a gift? We receive it graciously. With thanksgiving. With gratitude.

Even when things happen that we don’t like. Even when terrible things occur. Even when death and dying visit us in ways that we would rather not like to deal with — God is there. The Lord is there.

Modern psychology echoes the most ancient of spiritual truths: gratitude heals. Even the most secular of studies now suggest that cultivating a grateful mindset reduces anxiety, strengthens relationships, and enhances overall well-being. The Lord wants us to share in the love and gratitude which invites us to a greater understanding of Him.

When we thank God in prayer or through our actions, we align ourselves with His will and experience a sense of Divine completeness. The good and the bad come together in one Wholeness.

When we deny this gratitude, then Ego enters the world — the realm of Shaytan. Of death, disease, horror… we want things the way WE want them… not the way that is decreed for us for our own salvation and well-being.

Nothing is easy.

Not even Love.

Love is the giving of yourself for the Other — be it God, your brother, your mother, your father, your friend… It is self-less. And selflessness is difficult. Especially in a society that places so much emphasis on the SELF.

Last year I spoke of this young Palestinian boy who gave thanks to God for rain water when all water was cut off to Gaza.

This, to me, is still the example of the attitude that we must have when we speak of thanksgiving and gratitude.

Did this boy have a warm home to return to with turkey and gravy and stuffing?

Did this boy complain about politics or identity or policies?

Did this boy have an axe to grind? Historical grievances? Economic disparities?

No. He had none of these things. He lost everything. And yet, he gave thanks to God. And for what? For rainwater.

We live in a world in which we seem to wear our grievances on our shoulder like a badge of honor. Every slight against us seems to be a moment in which we are invited to recall to others our well-rehearsed speech of complaints, sorrows, wrongs, etc.

But there is a prayer that I wrote into my prayerbook as a monk and which I prayed daily:

O Lord, I thank you for everything that I have, and I thank you doubly for everything that I don’t have.

I saw a group on Facebook yesterday called something like “A Group For Prayer”. Every single post was something like this: “If you BELIEVE IN PRAYER, God will send you financial blessings by noon tomorrow.” Or: “Share this post, and by next week, blessings will come your way.” What they seem to forget is that in nearly every single case, the people of God — apostles, prophets, etc. — were the outcasts of this world. They were slandered, martyred, murdered, violated...

Our blessings are not worldly blessings. If we are blessed with a happy family, a comfortable meal, warm clothes, a happy home… this is not a bad thing. On the contrary, this is all a great blessing for which we should give thanks. But this is not necessarily the way of those who follow the Truth in this world.

We give thanks for our worldly blessings.

We give thanks for our worldly losses.

We give thanks for the joys in our life.

We give thanks for the sorrows in our life.

We give thanks for the justice in the world.

We give thanks for the injustices in this world.

We give thanks for the love we feel.

We give thanks for the hatred we experience.

We give thanks for the good things that come to us.

We give thanks for the horrors that come to us.

And in the end… none of us are better than the boy in Gaza who gives thanks for the rain water that keeps him alive.

In the end, our political and economical grievances really mean nothing.

In the end, all we have is gratitude to God.

That’s what it’s all about.

Even Muslims that I know get caught up in the idea that Thanksgiving Day is “really” just a day about genocide, exploitation, horror, death, etc…

But entering into this narrative of politics and exploitation, we lose focus of what’s really important — and why this particular holiday was instituted in the first place with language which was intentionally not sectarian.

We give thanks to God for all that we have — and for all that we don’t have.

Whether Christian, Muslim, Jew… or what have you… There is no other basis for our spiritual life than GRATITUDE.

In a world in which God and the Divine was still a reality which was taken for granted and which was still a daily reality, this was understood. But in our time in this year of 2024, it is not so apparent.

Let us all, whatever our creed or religion, recognize this day not as an official “religious” holiday, necessarily, but as a day in which all people — at a very base level — understand that which our life is based upon.

We do not choose to be born. We do not often choose how our life will often turn out. And yet… we stand in awe at the Majesty. And we give thanks. We give thanks for the pleasures, the pains. The gifts, and the griefs. The treasures and the trials. The love and the loss.

For the air we breathe, we give thanks. For the food we eat, we give thanks. For the life we live and the people we know and the friends we have… we give thanks.

Let us all, then, enter collectively into the transformative power of gratitude — a gratitude which we all often forget.

Glory to God for all things.

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Thank you, and may God reward you! Glory to God for all things!