Pastor's Corner: A daily dose of November

The night of fright has passed. Those costumes that were eagerly obtained with high anticipation of being donned around town are now crammed into already forgotten corners of bedroom and closet floors, thrown into the shadows of exile, perhaps never to be worn again. As buckets of candy are consumed, little wrappers fall like autumn leaves - shiny, plastic costumes never to be worn by any other confectionary again. Perhaps not since some holiday on the other side of summer has the sugar flowed so freely and it ramps up the system for an onslaught of goodies yet to come. Jack o' lantern buckets will soon be stored away and replaced with the next vessel of holiday sweets - the Christmas stocking.

But not so fast, I hope you say. There's an extra page on the calendar between October and December, and it contains a holiday too. Football fans would lament passing by this month so thoughtlessly. That page has a full month of Sundays ... and Monday nights ... and Saturdays. Oh OK, and Thursday nights too.

There's one particular Thursday I like to zero in on, and I hope you do too. It's the one holiday that shouldn't fade away so fast. In a perfect world it would be carried in our hearts throughout all of the pages on the calendar, but in our world, it's often overshadowed by the delirious season of gift giving and receiving. Credit cards go on a feeding frenzy. Wallets shed cash as quickly as those Halloween candies stripped of their crinkly skins.

Somehow this season of sensory and spending overload shifts from the sugar-laced, adrenaline rush of fright night to the unbridled disrobing of Christmas joys. But it all hinges around the quiet holiday in the middle - the observance of Thanksgiving. One might think that whoever planned the order of these three holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, got the order wrong. Shouldn't Christmas come before Thanksgiving? After all, it's only natural to give thanks after we've received a gift. Only after the children hear the candy hit their plastic jack o' lanterns do they toss a quick "thank you" as their eyes and feet automatically turn toward the neighbor's front porch. We don't often say "thank you" before someone hands us a complement, shares a treasure, or passes the pudding. So who put these three holidays in such a random order anyway?

Maybe God had some say in it.

It's recorded right here in scripture. Take a look at Philippians 4:6.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

Don't you see it? First comes the fearful part. Then comes thanksgiving long before the gifts are received. In fact, gratitude comes before the wish list requests are even made.

Don't overlook this. In our world of increasing trauma, anxiety, depression and fear, don't blow past thanksgiving in your pursuit of blessings. Don't just flip past that single day in November. Allow your heart the time and space to feast on a sense of thanksgiving long after you flip the calendar page. Gratitude truly nourishes one's soul after a season of fearsome belly-aches and junk food.

Studies are revealing that grateful people are generally happier people, and happy people tend to live longer. A daily regimen of gratitude has shown to have such physical benefits as reduced stress, lower blood pressure and decreased risk of heart disease. Finding things to be thankful for on a weekly, if not daily basis, puts us in a clearer mental state and can thwart depression and anxiety, and weaken a whole host of frightful things that keep us up at night.

Gratitude is beneficial to our spiritual health as well. Finding something to be thankful for in the midst of all of our circumstances (the good, the bad, but especially the ugly) unmasks the hidden blessings that God hand-delivers every day. A regular observance of thanksgiving can help strip off those burdens that cover our truer selves and it kicks them to the forgotten corner of the floor, perhaps never to be worn again.

Thanksgiving prepares us to recognize even the smallest blessings of life. It opens our hands to more joyfully receive. James 1:17 says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." Now doesn't that just sing Christmas?

Our lives can be riddled with the fears of October, but they can be overcome by an every-day breath of thanksgiving. And the joyous celebration of receiving in December rings most true when a portion of November remains in our heart.

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Commissioned Lay Pastor Theresa Danley

Milk River Churches - First Presbyterian Church of Havre, Presbyterian Church of Chinook, Chinook United Methodist Church, Chinook American Lutheran Church