Thanksgiving

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me, and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.”
-Mother Teresa

Usually during this week, I post the same statistics I have always posted for Gun’s Quotes since I started them way back in the mid two-thousands. They seem inadequate this year, probably from the standpoint of their being out-of-date and the other from the standpoint of their negativity. I want you to be thankful from the standpoint of you understanding you have the ability to be a light to the world, not to make you feel good by reading the statistics about how so many around you don’t have what you have.

We are all going to come together this week and celebrate Thanksgiving Day, but I submit to you that for the vast majority of us it means nothing more than having a large family dinner and stuffing ourselves silly then goofing off because of the shortened work or school week. Perhaps it’s the cynical side of me, but I don’t see most people really taking the time to count their blessing and actually be thankful. There is still a lot of taking things for granted in our culture.

Nothing confirms my hypothesis more than the “Black Friday Creep” which has become quite problematic over the last few years. It isn’t enough that Americans cap their appreciation for everything they have by spending the very next day madly shopping and shoving one another in lines for what they don’t have, but now said madness has to start on the very day we set aside for being thankful.

Giving thanks has much more to do with the latter-portion of the compound word than the former: Giving.

Mother Teresa says that she must give until it hurts in order for there to be true love inside of her. She should know… she spent decades of her life in thanksgiving for what God provided to her by simply serving and providing for those that could do nothing for themselves.

For a moment, consider what you have done to give. I hope you can say that you have given until it hurts. Why? Because suffering from an opportunity cost as a result of giving is better than suffering from illness, hunger, injury, shame, loneliness or a myriad of other ailments that our first-world country suffers.

You have much to celebrate. Consider how you may help somebody near you celebrate, too.

Give. It’s the secret to joy.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!