Opening Thoughts

Welcome!

I began writing "Glimmers" almost two years ago to encourage my co-workers at the hospital where I serve as a chaplain. I hope you will find them encouraging as well. Below is my latest effort, a Thanksgiving post. I post a new Glimmers weekly, so come back and check it out!

Glimmer Man


Glimmers
Nov. 26, 2008

“Through some moment of beauty or pain, some sudden turning of our lives, we catch glimmers of at least what the saints are blinded by…” (Frederick Buechner, Listening To Your Life, p. 169)

Two years have passed since I wrote the Glimmers below. In the interim, my grandson, now 3, has developed into a bright, sensitive, amazing little person. His dad has completed another tour in Iraq and, thank God, returned safely. Chris, Candace and Christian will not be with us this year and they will be missed. My eldest daughter, Jessie and her husband, Josh, are expecting and we will soon be grandparents again. Amanda, my youngest, and Chad (former wannabe) are deep in the middle of wedding plans. So I have even more reason to give thanks this year. We’ll feast as usual, but I wanted to share this with you. I think it is one of my better efforts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jerald



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Nov. 21, 2006

Like many of you we are preparing for Thanksgiving at the Smith house. We braved the crowds at the grocery store last weekend to buy the turkey and all of the trimmings for the Smith family traditions. I am thankful we got out alive!

Already the retailers are at work to incite the desire for the latest and greatest, the newest and most fashionable, the bling-bling that proves your love as nothing else can. Thanksgiving is, after all, the kick-off of the holiday buying season when retailers make, in some cases, 70% of their yearly profit. But before all that…STOP.

Stop and look around your table. In my mind, as I look around ours, my wife, who has put up with me for 26 years is there. All of our three girls are there. Two son-in-laws, and one son-in-law wannabe (who we already love like family) are there. Last year one of them was in Iraq. We are sure thankful he is back. Our miraculous little grandson is there. Born at 2lb. 9 oz, now a precocious toddler, healthy and happy. Who is at your table? Give thanks for that. Look on the table. You’ll probably have more than enough to eat. Look up. Got a roof over your head? How often do we take that for granted? And look above that.

Thanksgiving is about that. Stopping to give thanks. I find it interesting that St. Paul, in one of his lists of gross sins, puts “unthankful” right in the middle of all of them. It is quite shocking to see it there the first time you read it (2 Timothy 3:2). The person who has no appreciation for what they already have will not likely ever be content with all they strive to get, and as St. Paul points out, that can lead to all kinds of trouble. As one Greek sage put it, “To whom little is not enough, nothing is enough”. Thanksgiving is the perfect antidote for that “nothing is enough” syndrome.

So, before you stick that fork in your mouth on Thursday: STOP. Give thanks. It could keep you out of a whole lot of trouble.

Thanksgiving Blessings,

Glimmer Man