Thanksgiving Is All a Matter of Perspective = =20 Psalm 103:1-10

Thanksgiving Is All a Matter= of Perspective Psalm 103:1-10

What are you thankful for? Some of you wil= l be asked this in Sunday School this morning, just as you are every year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so I’m just giving you a head start! You may have been asked the questi= on so many times, though, you would rather not hear it ever again. Perhaps you cringed a little when I asked it just now.

I suppose th= e question will be harder for some this year—with all the economic turmoil we’ve been through. How= does it affect a person’s gratitude when he’s out of work, or when h= is retirement funds have been cut in half?&nb= sp;

My hunch is = that some who have suffered such calamities will find very little to be thankful= for this year…while others, who have gone through problems just as severe, will feel more real gratitude than they did before their losses happened.

It’s f= unny how gratitude works. If we ha= d been one of those early Pilgrims and suffered what they went through, would it h= ave even crossed our minds to set aside a special day of thanksgiving? I doubt it. Maybe we’ve all had too much= …to be thankful for so little.

Gratitude is= such a matter of perspective, isn’t it?&n= bsp; Some who have a lot are never really thankful for it. Others seem to have so little and = yet they are genuinely thankful for what they have.

Well, this i= s all pretty heavy stuff. Here̵= 7;s a lighter perspective on thanksgiving. This comes from a group of stay-at-home moms who put together a list= of their blessings:

1. Automatic dishwashers…because they make it po= ssible for us to get out of the kitchen briefly before the family comes back in for snacks.

2. Husbands who attack small repair jobs around the house… because in doing so, they usually make the jobs big enough to call in the professional= s.

3. Children who put away their things and clean up after themselves…b= ecause they are such a joy, you really hate to see them go home to their own paren= ts.

4. Teenagers…because they give their parents an opportunity to learn a second language. AND…
5. Smoke alarms…because they let you know…when the turkey’= ;s done.

Again: ̶= 0;Thanksgiving is all a matter of perspective!”&nbs= p; One of the best places in Scripture to get a good perspective on thanksgiving is The Psalms. So many of these Old Testament jew= els are such beautiful and powerful expressions of gratitude. Follow along, please, as I read a portion of the 103^rd Psalm:

¹ Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy n= ame.

² Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-

³ who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,

⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassio= n,

⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶ The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:=

⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

⁹ He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever; =

¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquitie= s. (Psalm 103:1-10)

What struck me about = this particular Psalm is that little word “deserve:” “(God) do= es not treat us as our sins deserve…” It seems to me so much of our attit= ude about life, and thus how we perceive the blessings we have, is affected by = what you and I feel we “deserve.”&n= bsp;

The Psalmist is not complaining that he is not get= ting what he deserves. Instead, he’s praising God that he’s not getting what he deserves.&n= bsp; How about that—kinda’ turns things upside down?!?

There is a well-known= TV personality who, whenever anyone calls into his show and asks him how he’s doing, he always replies, “Better than I deserve!” Have you heard this? By the way, some of you need to pay= attention to the rest of what he says as well—but anyway, I have at times found myself wondering about that little phrase: “Better than I deserve.= 221;

And I have noticed th= at other people have picked up on this and also reply when asked how THEY are doing, “Better than I deserve.” Are you hearing this too? It’s getting to be rather co= mmon response.

Well, I don’t question anyone’s sincerity when they say this; but prompted as I oft= en am by this terrible malady of thinking a little more deeply about things, I= can’t help but wonder what it would take for these “Better than I deserve” folks to change their answer to something else.

Would they say this, = for example, if they had just gotten a speeding ticket? “A $200 fine for going 12 mi= les an hour over the limit—but, hey, that’s…‘better than I deserve.’”

Or what if they lost = their job, or they just got the news that their house had burned down, or receive= d a terrible diagnosis from their doctor, would they still say “Better th= an I deserve” when asked about the general state of their being?

And if they did, and = if they really meant it, what would be their motivation: some kind of self-hat= red, maybe: “You know, I’m such a terrible person, I really do deser= ve worse than this.” Or= 230;if they continue to feel this way even in the midst of crisis and sadness, cou= ld it really be the result of a profoundly deep sense of gratitude?

The Apostle Paul did encourage us to be thankful in all things, (I Thes. 5:18) right? So it must be possible for the ans= wer to be gratitude—Christ really does enable us to be thankful in all circumstances; although that’s probably not where most of us live our lives.

I recently ran across= a story that tells of a man who seemed to have a “Better than I deserve” perspective on life. Henry Gariepy tells the story in his book titled Portraits of Perseverance. The manR= 17;s name was Hans, and he worked for a wealthy man named Carl. Here’s his story:=

Carl was a very rich = man who owned a large estate. One of his favorite pastimes was riding horseback through his valley, looking at everything he owned and congratulating himse= lf on his great wealth.

One day, as Carl was = out riding, he came up over a hill and in the distance saw one of his tenant farmers, an old man named Hans. It was lunch time, and Hans had set a little table under a shade tree and was getting ready to eat. But before he ate, he bowed his head and folded his hands in prayer to thank God for his food.

Carl watched the old = man as he prayed. Then he looked at = his meal. It was only a slice of = coarse bread and a piece of cheese. With a sneer Carl said, "If that’s = all I had to eat, I wouldn’t even bother to pray." Hans replied humbly, "It’= ;s enough, and I’m thankful that God has provided it." <= /span>

Taken aback by the old man’s answer, Carl turned his horse and prepared to ride away. But be= fore he could leave, old Hans said, "Wait a minute. I need to tell you something. I had a dream last night. In my dream I saw a beautiful scene= , and then I heard a voice saying, “Tonight the richest man in the valley w= ill die. Tonight the richest man = in the valley will die.”

"Poppycock!"= ; said Carl as he rode off toward home. But as he was riding, the words of old Hans haunted him, "Tonight the rich= est man in the valley will die." Up to then, he had felt well enough, but now he seemed to be experiencing some pains in his chest. He wonder= ed, "Could it possibly be true? Am I going to die tonight?"

When he reached home,= he called his doctor and told him of old Han’s dream and of the pains th= at he had been feeling. The doct= or said, "Well, it doesn’t sound like anything you ought to be concerned about, but just to put your mind at ease, I’ll come over an= d examine you.”

After he finished, the doctor said, “Carl, you are as strong as a horse. There’s no way you’re = going to die tonight.” Carl t= old the doctor he felt kinda’ foolish for paying attention to the old man’s dream about the richest man in the valley dying that night—but, still, he felt better after the doctor’s reassurance= s.

Carl went to bed. The next morning, though, there wa= s a knock at his door. When he op= ened it, one of his workers told him the sad news: old Hans had died during the nigh= t. They had just found him. Who knows if it ever occurred to C= arl that old Hans’ dream had come true—the richest man in the valley had died.

A “better than I deserve” perspective on l= ife is a blessing, friends. I suppos= e we could all have it if we chose to. It really would make our lives richer, you know.

I had this thought recently: just think how wealthy we= would be if we found it easier and more satisfying to make out our thanksgiving l= ist for all that we have than to make out our Christmas list of all the stuff we st= ill want. Can you see this?

During the Thanksgiving season, we usually get around = to talking about the ten lepers—the ones that Jesus healed. Now, if Jesus had asked them how t= hey were all doing when He encountered them that day, how many of them do you t= hink would have replied, “Better than I deserve?”

I don’t think anyone, including Jesus, would have looked for such a response from these poor souls. To have leprosy back then was abou= t as bad as life could get. Lepros= y was a very slow, lonely, and painful death sentence. Who ever deserved that?

So I don’t think any of them would have thought = that their lot in life was “better than they deserved.” And if any of the ten even ha= d the potential for feeling that way, it was only one of them—and since you know the story, you already know which one.

When Jesus healed those ten lepers, only one of them e= ver thanked him. The others evidently didn’t believe that being healed from this awful disease was in any w= ay “better than what they deserved!” Otherwise, they would have thanked Him.

Only one of them realized that this was way more than = what he had any reason to expect from Jesus--so he dropped to his knees before t= he Lord…and thanked Him. J= ust one!

But before we rush to criticize the other nine, let= 217;s ask ourselves—yes, once again, but a bit more thoughtfully this time-= -what are we really thankful for? H= ow are we expressing our gratitude? = And to Whom are we making our thanksgivings known?

If we’re honest, we all have it “better th= an we deserve!” But how often= do we acknowledge our blessings enough to actually begin thinking this way about = them…and saying so?

Better than we deserve? That’s grace--the foundation of the Christian Gospel. But listen again to this foretaste= of grace found in Psalm 103: “(God) does not treat us as our sins deserv= e…” Turns out that God was a grac= ious God in the Old Testament too.

Then, in the New Testament, that little appetizer expa= nds into the whole Thanksgiving spread: “…God demonstrates His love= for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5= :8) I know most of us have heard that = verse at least as many times as we’ve been asked, “What are you thank= ful for?”

But the connection is powerful! If we have ever taken to heart wha= t it is that Jesus Christ did for us, we know that it’s way better than anything we deserve. And here’s the thing: when we experience this overwhelming grace of being died for, we then have a new perspective on all our other blessings too.

We start seeing God’s blessings everywhere we lo= ok—family and friends to love, food and drink to enjoy, a house to live in, a church = to worship in, the abilities to see and touch and feel—and the list just keeps growing the longer we live with this powerful new perspective of gratitude. We begin to see al= l of the richness of life as being “better than we deserve!”

Maybe it’s time for us to really see how blessed= we are, friends, to be thankful for our blessings, and to know that there̵= 7;s no way we could ever deserve them all!&nbs= p; This is life-transforming, friends.=

With this perspective, we will LIVE as thankful people= , and GIVE as thankful people, and SERVE God and others as thankful people, becau= se saved and sanctified by God’s grace in Christ Jesus, we ARE thankful = people!