Next week is Thanksgiving in the USA. This isn’t the first year that I realized suddenly that this holiday was only days away, but this is the first year that state authorities are instructing how we may and may not celebrate as a pandemic continues to spread. Many people are jumping straight into Christmas anticipation as they see their traditional family Thanksgiving with its aromas of turkey, cranberry sauce, and fresh baked goods vanishing. This year, people are saying, we need some joy!
Joy, though, needs interpretation. Will Christmas really be more joyful than Thanksgiving in this year of COVID?
I have struggled with all of these thoughts plus more. Does the future really offer us a return to “normal”? Will the world be able to live without fear again—not just the fear of unexpected events but the fear of being mortally contaminated through fellowship with each other? Somehow COVID has made us all more fearful of the smallest symptoms, and the social rules offer a sense of control; if we don’t share Thanksgiving with loved ones, we will protect ourselves not only from COVID but also from other harsh diseases.
When, though, will it be safe to remove our masks? We have no guarantee that another novel disease will not attack us as new vaccines lull the world into COVID-forgetfulness. Even more sinister—whom can we trust? If there is any consistent kernel in the upheavals of the past eight months it is that conflicting information leaves us unsure what is real.
Immovable foundation
I’ve said to Richard several times over these last few months, “It’s a blessing that we were brought out of a cult. We’ve had to question everything in order to find truth. Now, even though we may not see everything, we can ‘smell’ when we’re being deceived and manipulated.”
We have had to dismantle our worldview and rebuild it on the immovable foundation of God’s word. This process is long, but the rebuilding is secure. God’s word really does anchor us in truth, even in a world upheaved by political agendas and confusing rules.
This week as we move towards Thanksgiving, Scripture reminds me that there are two things that define people who become slaves to their depraved minds: they refuse to honor God or to give thanks (see Rom. 1:18–23). These are not the two things I would have thought would define those hostile to God.
Looking at the shocking events of the past eight months has been disorienting: I never expected to see vandalism and public hatred validated in the cities of the USA. I would not have foreseen that the nature of humanity would be redefined so that our natural depravity would be dismissed, replaced instead with guilt or innocence based on one’s genetic inheritance.
Yet looking at the definitions of morality so many people endorse today and contrasting them with what Scripture defines as righteousness exposes an unbridgeable chasm between them. The problem with morality is that it can be molded to endorse almost any claim of fairness and right-doing. Morality can look like perfect justice from a human perspective, but humanity cannot define justice or righteousness.
True righteousness is found only in God, and we only understand it when we trust His provision and believe in His Son who became sin for us and died to redeem us. It is not possible to be truly moral apart from entrusting ourselves to the Lord, and any attempt to enforce morality or justice from a human perspective, separated from God’s revelation of Himself through His word and work, ultimately becomes oppression.
When I look at the events around me that I cannot logically explain, I begin to see that Romans 1:18–23 really does reveal the foundational problem: much of humanity has refused to honor God as God—as the sovereign Lord over all creation in whom is goodness, righteousness, and justice. Moreover, as people have refused to honor God as God, they have also ceased to thank Him.
It seems too simple—that exchanging the glory of God for an image of anything corruptible is a foundational shift away from reality. Yet when I think about it, honoring God as God means we submit to His own revelation of Himself. We honor the God who sovereignly created, knows, chooses, redeems, and brings us to life. We honor the uncreated One, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We honor the One who has defeated death and disarmed Satan, and we honor Him because “there is but one God” (1 Cor. 8:6)—and we give Him thanks.
Acknowledging Him as God and thanking Him for what He is doing is my mandate. These two things are the foundation that protects me from self-deception. If God is God, then His word means what it says, and I must submit to its definitions of reality. If God is God, my appropriate response as His creation and as His born-again new creation is to thank Him for what He has done—past, present, and future.
I know that His promises cannot fail. I know that He will do what He says. I know that He will never leave me, and not even death can separate me from His love. I know that He will complete what He has begun in me, and He will be faithful to keep me honoring Him no matter what happens.
Thanking God for who He is and for being sovereign over the events of the world is the response that will protect me from creating mental idols and self-deception. He is Lord, and this Thanksgiving I thank Him for allowing me to live now, for giving me true family in Him, and for providing for us everything we need—even turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin cake.
Thank you, Father, for this American holiday that reminds me that worshiping You is the heart of gratitude. †
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