Thanksgiving and Contentment
As Thanksgiving Day approaches I’d like to ask you what your current level of contentment is. I ask this because I happen to believe that there is a direct correlation between thanksgiving and contentment. This belief was reaffirmed last night when I came across the following prayer found in Edward Hays’ book, Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim. Hays writes, “O sacred season of Autumn, be my teacher, for I wish to learn the virtue of contentment. As I gaze upon your full-colored beauty, I sense all about you an at-homeness with your amber riches. You are the season of retirement, of full barns and harvested fields. The cycle of growth has ceased, and the busy work of giving life is now completed. I sense in you no regrets: you’ve lived a full life. I live in a society that is ever-restless, always eager for more mountains to climb, seeking happiness through more and more possessions. As a child of my culture, I am seldom truly at peace with what I have. Teach me to take stock of what I have given and received, may I know that it’s enough, that my striving can cease in the abundance of God’s grace. May I know the contentment that allows the totality of my energies to come to full flower. May I know that like you I am rich beyond measure…”
Hays is right; we can all learn something from the season of Autumn. Contentment, may well be one of those lessons. There is an “at-homeness,” a sense of peace, in Autumn that we should seek to emulate. This peace, however, may not come naturally for we truly do live in a society that is “ever-restless.” That society is also quite materialistic in nature. It does little to make us content with what we have. In fact, our society seeks to limit our contentment by constantly reminding us of things we do not have. May we learn from Autumn that what we have is enough, that our striving for more can cease, in the “abundance of God’s grace.”
Thanksgiving Day is appropriately enough observed during the season of Autumn. At this time we are all encouraged to count our blessings and be grateful. I am convinced that if we will do this, and keep on doing it, we will experience far more contentment than we typically do. By focusing on our blessings, on what we do have, we experience a peace that will never come when our attention is on that which we don’t have. By focusing on our blessings, we come to the realization that we are “rich beyond measure.”
Autumn’s bounty reminds me of the many blessings God has poured out on my life. This Thanksgiving I have much to be thankful for. I suspect you can say the same thing. My prayer for you is that in giving thanks you will also experience contentment. That gift, in and of itself, is something to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!
–Chuck