Happy Thanksgiving!!

I know. I know. It’s not a great time to “be happy” or to “give thanks.” We’re 9 months into a pandemic that continues to wreak havoc all over the world. Many will be spending Thanks- giving away from family and friends. Our nation (the United States of America) is anything BUT united. Closer to home, we’re about to enter into 6 months of winter. Need I go on? Anyone feeling better?

With all that in mind, I want you to repeat after me (go ahead and do it out loud): “It could be worse.” Hard to say, but true. 

• We could be living right now in Angola, where 200 people die each day of malnutrition, and the average life expectancy is 41 (a third of all children die by the age of 5).
• We could be experiencing inflation like Venezuela, where their annual inflation rate in July was at 264,872% (ours is less than 2%).
• We could be living in Constantinople back in 541 A.D. when the “Plague of Justinian” arrived and killed an estimated 40 million people… up to 50% of the world’s population. 
• We could be in Antarctica right now where the temperature is -49 degrees.

It could be worse.

I’m not trying to minimize what anyone’s going through right now. It’s a hard season to navigate. That’s why we have to continually adjust our attitude. Paul (the Apostle) said in Philippians 4:11 “…I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.”

I’m not there yet. I’m trying to LEARN contentment… and one thing I’m learning is that perspective matters. Yeah, things are bad, but it could be worse (and I’m grateful they’re not). 

By the time we sit down on Thursday and finish our first plate of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, 500 people in our world will have died of hunger. Not you. Not me. 

It could be worse. Much worse.

The truth is we STILL have so much to be grateful for. So, Crossroads Church, let’s focus on what we have left…and not on what we’ve lost!! 

Have a happy Thanksgiving. By the way, I’m grateful for all of you!

Pastor Phil 

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