{"id":1226,"date":"2014-11-27T09:31:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T14:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2014-11-27T10:42:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T15:42:47","slug":"thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1226","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Thanks<\/a>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today is Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

Thank you!\u00a0 But most of all, thanks for all those\u00a0not-so-great things in my life and the people who love me in spite of them all.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of how Jesus’ taught how NOT to give thanks. \u00a0Actually, he was teaching people how not to pray but I put praying and “giving thanks” in the same general category.<\/p>\n

In the Gospels, Jesus tells the story of how this\u00a0one guy in church “gives thanks.” It went sorta like this …<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks, God, for making me such a great person.\u00a0 It is not so much that you\u2019ve made me handsome, smart, and wealthy, which you did (thanks for that!) but you\u2019ve also made so good and kind and wonderful.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 I am!\u00a0 I love my family.\u00a0 I give to charity.\u00a0 I do good works.\u00a0 So thanks, God.\u00a0 Great job!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus wasn\u2019t a fan.\u00a0 He did, however, like an\u00a0other guy\u2019s “give thanks” prayer which went a bit like this \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cGod, I\u2019m a miserable, wretched, no good schmuck.\u00a0 Every now and then I do something right but it is more luck or someone else\u2019s grace than anything I can claim.\u00a0 Thanks for giving me all the things I never deserved.\u00a0 Thanks for being nice and kind, even when I was a jerk (which, I am sorta all the time because, well, I\u2019m human).\u00a0 So thanks, God.\u00a0 I\u2019m grateful for all the good things you give because it isn\u2019t what I really deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s to being thankful for all things I don\u2019t deserve. \u00a0For all the people who did nice to me despite myself.<\/p>\n

For all those folks at work, at worship and at play who put up with my insecurities, pettiness and biases.\u00a0 People who should go screaming out of the door during lectures, rants and a host of poor decisions on my part.\u00a0 But who stay, work incredibly hard, and make good things happen despite all I do to make it otherwise.<\/p>\n

Thanks to my children, their husbands and my children\u2019s children for loving and caring for me even through those times when I was distant and unavailable.\u00a0 Perhaps even more, thanks for being loving, kind and tolerant when I get preachy and judgmental.\u00a0 And thanks for loving and caring for each other far above and beyond anything that I could have been responsible for.<\/p>\n

And thanks most of all to my wife.\u00a0 Who continually overlooks my many, many faults \u2013my bad habits, my stubbornness, my moodiness.\u00a0 Who is there for me throughout the many business trips and late nights working at home.\u00a0 Who \u2013 like my work colleagues \u2013 has daily moments where she would\u00a0legitimately merit running out of the door screaming.\u00a0 Who I am convinced loves me in spite of who I am and all the stupid things I do.<\/p>\n

This is what, I believe, God gives to us.\u00a0 The ability to give, forgive and love beyond measure, beyond merit, beyond reason.<\/p>\n

But as importantly, it is the ability to recognize that we are blessed and are to be thankful not because of ourselves, but rather in spite of ourselves.<\/p>\n

So thanks to all of you out there.<\/p>\n

And thanks be to God who sacrifices of himself for all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Today is Thanksgiving. Thank you!\u00a0 But most of all, thanks for all those\u00a0not-so-great things in my life and the people who love me in spite of them all. I am reminded of how Jesus’ taught how NOT to give thanks. \u00a0Actually, he was teaching people how not to pray but I put praying and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[130],"tags":[133,132,131],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1234,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions\/1234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}