Flipping off the…
Have you ever been in this awkward situation on Thanksgiving when everyone is forced to say something they are thankful for at the table?
Followed by someone threatening to take the food away unless we do it?
So because we’re scared, we share what we are thankful for….
Our job
Our church
Our possessions
Our friends
Our family
Our relationship
Our turkey
Essentially we list off all of the things that we are blessed by – In other words, we’re simply listing off these things that are intentionally providing something of value in our lives…and somehow the turkey always makes that list.
As people go around sharing what they are thankful for, do you ever hear your name mentioned? Are you intentionally living a life where you are being a blessing to others around you?
That flips our focus off the turkey a little bit…
In the Old Testament we see the term tribes – This was essentially your family and the people you did life with. In Genesis you see these tribes were a group of people who were focused inwardly. Why? Because life was about survival, your own well-being and preservation. It wasn’t about how can you help the other tribes around you – It was about how you can grow yours so you can take over other tribes to become more powerful – You had to live this self-centred way because if you didn’t, then they would take over your tribe in order to have more territory, possessions and people. This is why you see funny scriptures about how many people, tents and donkeys different tribes had – At this point in the Bible, the way these people went about living life was solely focused on themselves.
Then this dude named Abram comes along and God tells him that he and his tribe will be a blessing…
and all people on the earth with be blessed through him.
That’s a little bit different than how everyone else was doing life…God wants to use this family…this tribe to go from looking inwards to looking outwards as their new focus becomes how can we intentionally be of value to the others around us…How can we be a blessing to these people we are surrounded by? – This way of life has gone beyond Genesis 12 as God wants to use us to be a blessing to the people around us here and now.
What if we flipped our focus off the bird and flipped our focus on how we can be a blessing to the people we are surrounded by in life – Our family, friends, classmates, co-workers, church members, our community – This is the way of life that reflects the people God wants us to be in this world.
Could this Thanksgiving become more about how we can be a blessing to others?
Could this Thanksgiving change how we go about living?
Could this Thanksgiving change a life?