On this Thanksgiving morning, I’m posting a picture that shows you what I see every day as I am driving home from North Oak Cliff. This pic from the great Justin Terveen shows a much more swollen river than usual…I mostly post it for how the buildings look…because that’s how it looks, every night…
I think I probably have one of the coolest commutes in all of Dallas. Let me describe it for you, because it’s connected to my sense of gratitude today.
Almost every night, or afternoon (whatever time of day, it is honestly when I get to the place of this view) as I am crossing the Trinity and the panorama of Dallas is splayed out before me like the front range of the Rockies, I find a incredibly deep gratitude welling up inside of me.
“How lucky am I?” I say to myself, and to God.
If Dennise is with me, we often say it together…
“How lucky are we?!”
Not a joke…we take a moment to breathe it in and say this out loud.
The answer is that we are incredibly blessed. Blessed is really the better way to describe it, than lucky. We are blessed, and this is the day to count those blessings.
It’s very easy to get bogged down in the day today of living.
And for me, personally, painful feelings of the past three years are blessedly receding —the pandemic, and then my Mothers’ illness and death last year. Just as everyone else in the world was “opening up” last Fall, my own soul was experiencing her crushing and painful loss.
And it’s not that any of that pain is totally gone. But it IS that it’s MUCH easier, this year, to “breathe in, breathe out,” and notice my blessings.
And so, here’s how my commute goes…
As I drive home, I first see the stately Live Oaks and hills of North Oak Cliff.
And I think of all the beautiful people here…
Bishop Arts.
Kessler Theater.
Texas Theater.
Davis and Jefferson.
All the neighborhoods there.
I think of the incredible people at Kessler Park United Methodist Church. I think of how they are unafraid to stand for social justice, but also equally committed to serving the families of our neighborhood. I think of our racial justice series, I think of the young children on Wednesday night. I think of, as happened this week, all the many places that we serve our neighbors in our neighborhood.
Every day this week, because of the way the calendar falls, our members were out serving others outside the walls of our church.
And then, as I am crossing the bridge I can see both the Longhorn Ballroom and Poor Davids Pub off in the distance.
And so I think of all my musician friends… those who live in this town, and the hundreds around the nation. I am so grateful to have MUSIC, and each one of them, in my life. Music saves me from despair so often, and I’m grateful for the creativity, and challenge, of my artist friends. These soul friends are part of the deepest part of me.
Then, I look ahead, and I see that front range of downtown Dallas’ buildings straight ahead…
This is what you see in this picture…I pass ATT Discovery, and the way it glitters like a downtown should.
I pass City Hall and Farmer’s Market.
And so, I think of our City Council, and all the Judges we know, and all the people in county government we’re blessed to know. Some how, we manage to know just about every elected official in the city and county at this point in our lives.
That never cease to amaze either of us. I’m grateful to know them as friends and, in a sense, be a pastor to many of them too.
Then, I pass Deep Ellum...
And I think of all the memories, of the much younger me…of my night walks I still make through there to this day. And I can see Grace United Methodist Church off to my left, and so…I think of all the Reconciling Churches, and people deeply committed to social justice for the LGBTQ community that we have become friends with.
And then, in another blink, I am back in Old East Dallas…
amidst our old-growth trees, and stately 100 year old homes. And I think of all my neighbors, and our front porch neighborhood…of Garden Cafe, and all the crazy folks in our Hood and association.
And then, I am home…
to this ridiculously unique house we get to call home. And I think of how ridiculously blessed we were to move here, 30 years ago now. And how every night here is a blessing.
All this takes me no more than 10-12 minutes, of course. It’s a very short 10 minute drive through the very heart and soul of my city. Which ends up, if I am paying attention, being a 10 minute moment where I can allow this very gratitude I have just described to well up inside of me.
I know some of you are having a hard year…or maybe a hard few years. And so I am thinking of you too, where ever you are.
Hold on.
Breathe deep.
Trust that, even in the midst of whatever you’re going through, there are things *right now* to be grateful for…even if it’s just a roof over your head, central HVAC, and indoor plumbing.
These things are not nothing, of course. And last year, when I was in the midst of my deep grief, concentrating on such obvious, but overlooked, blessings, really helped me push through.
I know this: “the more we are thankful, the more we are thankful.”
The more we practice gratitude, the more we find to be grateful about. Brain science is now confirming the biological basis for this ancient spiritual truth.
Thanksgiving is actually our most spiritual of public holidays. Its origins come from ancient practice of being thankful to God, and thanksgiving has been practiced by religious adherents of every tradition for millennia now.
More than sacrifice, more than any other attitude of prayer, THANKSGIVING transcends every culture and time.
Scientists find it through the study of evolution and the discoveries of mysterious heavenly bodies, and tiny molecules a the cellular level. Artists find it through the beauty of a song, or a painting, or a play.
When we pay attention, we find so much to be thankful for. And whether you believe in a God or not, I believe God hears those gratitudes that you raise.
As the old Irish saying goes, “Bidden, or Unbidden, God is present.”
My clergy brother, Marcus Womack, noted the irony of this this week. He noted how in our culture today, we are accustomed to say saying “have a great Thanksgiving…”
In the church of course, “Great Thanksgiving” is what we call the prayer of holy communion! That’s literally the proper name for it. Marcus noted how that always seems a tad funny to him.
And if I was Groucho Marx, my response to our culture’s “Have a Great Thanksgiving” would be…
“Why thanks…I have a whole book of ‘em!”
Seriously folks…and I am being serious here…it’s no doubt that communion prayer is called “Great Thanksgiving” to remind ourselves of what this week is supposed to remind us of:
Find ways to regularly give gratitude for your life.
“The more you are thankful, the more you are thankful.”
As I take that ten minute drive, I often just let the gratitude wash over me. The feeling of abundance that is far larger than the Trinity River beneath me.
I am grateful for all of you, here online as well, who read all these always too long missives on my blog and Facebook. You’re a part of my gratitude today too.
And I end with one of my favorite prayers from the great German mystic, Meister Eckhart:
“If the only prayer you ever prayed in your entire life was ‘thanks,’ it would be enough.”
Indeed it would…
With gratitude and abundance, I say “have a great Thanksgiving.”