Count It All Joy!

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:2-8 ESV).

Have you ever wondered how the turkey must feel as we get close to Thanksgiving? I know that technically you would easily be able to say that the turkey has no thoughts about such things; after all, they are just birds. That’s true, but I tend to let my mind wander through such crazy thoughts with full freedom. What if they did feel, or think? What would Thanksgiving mean to them? It would be somewhat like the chicken and the pig thinking about making breakfast for the farmer. The chicken tells the pig that they could fix some bacon and eggs for the farmer and the pig retorts that there is a big difference between what he has to give and what the chicken has to give. One is a small gift and the other is a full commitment! I do know I wouldn’t want to be the pig! Maybe turkeys are like that. Or maybe they just wonder why things didn’t work out differently for them. You may remember that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird instead of the bald eagle. He definitely didn’t like the idea of the bald eagle as our national bird. In a letter to his daughter, Franklin wrote that the bald eagle is “a bird of bad moral character” because he steals food from other birds rather than hunting for his own. In the same letter, Franklin wrote that he thought the artwork for the Presidential Seal looked more like a turkey than a bald eagle. To Franklin, the idea of a turkey as our national bird was preferable. Of the turkey, he wrote that it was a vain, silly bird, but nonetheless “a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.” Sounds better than a destiny to end up on someone’s dinner table! Well, it takes me to our reading today. I know that’s a leap for some; but, aren’t we like that sometimes when we face trials. It is always much easier to think about others and how unfair life can seem at times. We really should understand that all those “unfair” times of difficulty are God’s tools for bringing good into our lives. Maybe that’s the real emphasis of Thanksgiving. Perhaps we should take inventory of the many things God has done good for us as a result of the bad circumstances of our lives. That would be a great foundation for truly being thankful. Count it all joy!