Reading The Washington Post every morning can be depressing.
We read each morning about wars, earthquakes, floods, famines, fires, crimes and plagues. TV is even worse. It is enough to send you right back to bed.
It sounds like Jesus talking about the end times with wars and insurrections. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.” But Jesus tells us when we hear of these things, “do not be terrified.”
It is hard not to be terrified. It is hard not to be overwhelmed when we remember that it is the Christian vocation to work to overcome these disasters, to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, work for peace and justice.
But Thanksgiving is not a time to look at disasters but a time to give thanks for the places where there is peace, where there is love, where there are people working for justice.
A social scientist once told me that he never found sin to be a surprise. For a Darwinian social scientist, crime is not a mystery. The mystery for him was why people got up everyday and tried to support their families with a minimum wage job and why only a relative few turned to lives of crime.
So despite the wars, crimes and disasters, we can give thanks that life is good.
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