Last Thursday was the joyful Thanksgiving Day. We had quite a few families come to our house to celebrate the beginning of holiday season. Preparation is certainly laborious but is rewarding. I got the assignment, from my wife, to clean up our stuffed porch and basement, in order to accommodate more people. Initially, we were not sure whether our house could fit that many of people.  Thanks to our friend in neighbor who was willing to accommodate all the young people in their house.

Sometimes, I was wondering what the meaning of thanksgiving is. According to the Encarta dictionary, there are at least three interpretations of the thanksgiving.  The first one is “a prayer that offers thanks to God”, the second is “an expression or an act of giving thanks” and the last is “a public acknowledgement of divine goodness”.  From these interpretations, I could say that the meaning of Thanksgiving is to express our thanks to God – either through a prayer or a public acknowledgement.

The questions we can ponder upon are “Do we express our thanks “only” when God says “yes” to our request, or, let me put it this way, do we feel “more compelled to” give thanks when our request has been granted?” In my recollection of my younger days, my parents always taught me to say “thank you” when I received a favor or something from others. On one hand, this was trying to teach me to build a habit of good manner, regardless whether I truly appreciate what I have received or not 🙂 On the other hand, this molds me, unintentionally, to appreciate or to give thanks ONLY when I receive. Consequently, it becomes more difficult for me to give thanks when I didn’t receive anything. Based on this mentality, in my journey of faith, I am more tuning to say thanks when God say “yes” to my request and unlikely to give thanks to Him when He says “no”.  Immediately, I know this is a problem and I need to back off from this mentality.

This leads us to the crux of my question: “Do we give thanks to our God, from bottom of our heart, in all circumstances – regardless He says “yes” or He says “no” to our request?”  Because this is the true meaning of Thanksgiving, as it was taught by apostle Paul to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  Personally, I like a hymn “Thanks to God” by August L. Storm and John A. Hultman very much, as it depicts the attitude and meaning of Thanksgiving very well. Below is a glimpse of it.

Thanks for pleasant balmy spring-time, Thanks for dark and stormy fall

感謝神，賜溫暖春天，感謝神，蕭瑟秋景

Thanks for prayers that You have answered, Thanks for what You does deny

感謝神，禱告蒙應允，感謝神，未蒙垂聽

My dear brothers and sisters, can we still give thanks when God says “no”? I certainly hope you can. It is my prayer that we give thanks in all circumstances, as we know our God is good and He answered our prayers abundantly more than we have asked.

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In a marriage counseling support group meeting, the leader asked attendees around, “Do you have anything that you would like to thank, today?”  The room was silent. He surveyed the room to see if there is any volunteer. All he sees were blank faces and heads down. Suddenly a person popped a word, “I would like to give thanks”.  The leader was pleased and felt relief. Then the person said, “I am thanking for that I can attend this group of “quiet persons” because I have had enough at my house.” A burst of laughs rises in the room.

There is always something that we can thank for even sometimes, we don’t feel like to do so. Someone said, “Thanksgiving is an attitude and a life style even when time is difficult”. No wonder James indicated to us that “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds我的弟兄們 ，你們落在百般試煉中，都要以為大喜樂(James 1:2)” Apostle Paul also told us that “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 應當一無掛慮 ，只要凡事藉著禱告、祈求，和感謝，將你們所要的告訴神 。(Philippians 4:6)” Apostle Paul’s teaching enlightened us that we should not be anxious about anything because God granted us a privilege to access Him with one condition: we need to carry an attitude of thanksgiving when we plead to Him.

In the Gospel of Luke, we read the scene of Jesus was welcomed to the city of Jerusalem as King – People spread their cloaks on the road. The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. (Luke 19:36-37). However, some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” Do you know what Jesus’ response was? He replied, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. 耶穌說：我告訴你們，若是他們閉口不說，這些石頭必要呼叫起來。(Luke 19:40)” This is a powerful message to us, as Christians.  We need to offer our praise and thanks whenever we can.

Yesterday we had a great Thanksgiving celebration. A lot of friends and families joined our gathering. The greatest joy, to me, is to see so many kids came to give thanks in front of everyone. John Clayton once said, “Christians were instructed to serve others, and the thanksgiving was for the grace of God and the fact that God offered a way for man to return to a positive relationship with Him.” I believe most of us would be delighted to see our own kids having an attitude of thanksgiving and this would lead them to have a positive relationship with God in the future. After the testimonials session, we enjoyed a great dinner and fellowship together. We saw a lot of new faces and old friends in our midst. It is just like a family!

My dear brothers and sisters, in this thanksgiving season, we not only need to learn how to give thanks but also need to learn how to serve others. It is my prayer that each one of us would have a serving heart and a thanksgiving attitude toward our journey of faith.

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Last Tuesday morning, I just came back from a one-day vacation. As soon as I entered my office, my next-door colleague stopped over my office immediately and said, “Tell me that this is NOT true – Bill told me that you took a vacation day yesterday in order to help the presidential campaign.”  “Ha…ha…ha, certainly not, I need to decide which side I am on first!” I answered.

This past election must have driven many of us nuts because of so many campaign surveys and calls have bombarded us.  It was finally over and the result came out on last Wednesday. No matter which side you chose, either Republican or Democratic, I believe you would hope the candidate could live through his promises and steer the country from her predicaments. An interesting observation was the Dow Jones Indices plunged more than 300 points the next day. It seems to reveal that a promising hope is not there as national problems continue to loom and financial budget cliff is imminent. This generates a question in my mind, “Did we choose the right side?”

In many situations, we were asked to choose sides. Frequently, however, we are afraid of choosing it because we are not sure which one is better – based on our limited knowledge, experience and information we received, we can only make an “educated guess”. This tells us how limited we are, as we couldn’t foresee the future and our crystal ball is always cloudy 🙂

There is a famous quote from President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War period. I believe most of you are very familiar with it. When President Lincoln responded to an inquiry about his view of the War in freeing the slavery, he said, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right”. This is an enlightened view of making a right decision in choosing side – all we have to concern about is on God’s side.  The fact is if we were on God’s side, then, we can be sure that even we were in the same situation as Joseph’s predicaments in the Egypt, we shall be successful and prospered.

The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 約瑟住在他主人埃及人的家中，耶和華與他同在，他就百事順利‧  (Genesis 39:2)”

Do we know we are choosing the right side? This is a question puzzles many of us. I think it should not be that difficult. As Bible told us that we Christians have the promise from the Lord – He will send His Spirit to dwell in each one of us and help us to understand His truths (John 14:16). Therefore, if we can learn to listen to His guidance in every situation, I am sure we will be on God’s side all the time.

My dear brothers and sisters, we may be bound to make mistakes in choosing the right side initially, but we should not be staying in that mode forever. As long as we are willing to listen to Holy Spirit’s whisper, whether we turn to the right or to the left, our ears will hear a voice behind us, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21). In this crooked and rebellious generation, may God have mercy on us in order for us to stand firm on our belief.

Many poems fascinated me during my younger days. One of them is Bai Lee’s (李白)“Meditation in the night (静夜思)”. Below is its Chinese part as I have no English translation:

床前明月光，疑是地上霜。舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉。

It reveals an emotion of homesickness with a feel of serenity. Looking at the two actions of head-up (舉頭)and head-down (低頭),described in the second verse, a sharing idea came up to me.

Let me start with this question: “Have you ever heard a new slang / acronym / term called ‘Head-down group低頭族’”? I was not clear about its meaning initially. Then, my wife explained to me that the slang was trying to depict the odd behavior of current generation of geeks – with all the modern electronic gadgets and technology, such as laptop computer, cell phone, iPad, etc. – they are always heading down to read emails and text their messages, or browse the internet, or play games, or watch videos, etc. I realize that I am one of them too 🙂

The head-down scene is so prevalent that you won’t miss it if you have a chance to go to any public place, such as malls, schools or working places. You may say, “So, what is the big deal?” Well, the big deal is those gadgets captivate our focus and keep our heads down all the time. As a result, we may not pay attention to people around or any surroundings. Sometimes, this is also the case in my house – when I talk to my kids, they are either not listening or respond it because they are heading down to laptops. The addiction is what I am really concerning the most.

On the other hand, I am going to give you a new slang / term called the head-up group (舉頭族)。I still remember my Tai-Chi master’s teaching in the old days. He frequently said, “Head up and back straight! You can’t be skillful if you keep you head down and bent your back all the time 低頭彎腰，所學不高”.  Similarly, in our faith journey, all we can see are nothing but “troubles” and “difficulties” if we always keep our heads down.

The head-up group is a group that looks up to our Lord (仰望神), all the time. This good habit of looking up will keep us from “captivating” by the modern gadgets. Moreover, when we learn to look up, we can then see who is “enthroning” in the heaven as the prophet Isaiah. At that time, we can be as sure as the apostle Paul, said, “If God is for us, who can be against us? 神若幫助我們、誰能敵擋我們呢 (Romans 8:31b)” .

The addiction and captivation by the modern gadgets can sway our focus from God to worldly enjoyment. However, there is a means for us to transfer from head-down group to head-up group – We have to keep up good habits of daily devotion and prayers with our Lord. King David taught us that we have to seek God and pray to God while He may be found; consider Him as our hiding place and He will protect us from trouble and surround us with songs of deliverance (Psalm 32:6-7).  My dear brothers and sisters, are your head still down? It is time to look up!