Thanksgiving in America, 30 Years Later

It was 30 years ago this week when I was still a youth pastor in Dayton, Ohio that my senior pastor came to me with an assignment for the annual church Thanksgiving Eve service.
He asked me to come up with a segment called “Thanksgiving in America.” I think that he wanted it to be more of a historical presentation, but I approached it from my unique angle.
While I was waiting for the high school students to get out of Centerville High School on Monday afternoon because I used to take a group of the kids out to eat so I could spend some quality time together with them; I began to make my way through the alphabet.
I began to make a list of all the things I was grateful for from A through Z.
In two days I composed my list and wrote a melody and sang the song for the congregation.
This year I decided that rather than just bust out the old Rudy Thanksgiving Classic, in honor of it being 30 years later, I would revisit the area of my soul set apart for gratitude and see what my heart came up. I mean, in all this time that has passed, I should be able to come up with at least 26 new items to be grateful for, right? It’s not the quantity that is challenging but the limiting of being able to use only one letter, one time and let’s face it;  some letters don’t roll as easily off the tongue as others. Did anybody mention X, Y, and Z?
The reason I do this again is to encourage you, my precious and loyal readers to do likewise. We need to spread a little life and shine a lot more light for one another these days.
Our culture has become so spoiled, and we all have a tendency to take the most treasured things for granted. We have become whiners and complainers and behave in a manner as if we were the center of the universe.
There are so many who have already skipped right over Thanksgiving Thursday so they can get to Black Friday and go out and compete with other misguided shoppers fighting over products they don’t need to impress others who don’t care.
But what if this year was different? It can be! We aren’t as helpless to our surroundings as we pretend to be. What if we set the tone rather than just reacted to the temperature?
Let’s be trendsetters that lead others away from the self-centered “What’s In It For Me?” mirror to the other-centered banqueting table of “Loving God first and loving one another as ourselves?”
So here we go:
Thank You, Lord, for:
Audiobooks I get to read, Bible studies I get to lead,
CD music I love to play, delicious dinners at the end of each day,
Eagles’ football with Merrill Reese, Facebook contacts that never cease,
Grandkids Pop-Pop loves to hold; Hallmark Channel never gets old,
Ice cream flavors by the dish, Jingle bells is my constant wish,
Kids who always call me Dad, Loving wife I’m blessed to have,
Mets baseball games that drive me crazy, Naps I take when I get lazy,
Office decorated like no other, Postables and my signed sealed delivered friends,
Quiet times and my times with Him, Radio Shows on Lift FM, 
Snow days that shut things down; Twitter family never lets me down,
Underdogs who don’t give in, Victory over darkness and sin,
Wawa coffee I love to drink, Xfinity.com is my email link,
Yoo Hoo reminds me of yesterday, Zealous faith for whatever comes my way,
Thank you, Lord for A-Z- cause it’s Thanksgiving Day like it was meant to be.
Now it is your turn, and I would love for you to share your List with me. You can email me at pastorrudytlc@comcast.net Happy Thanksgiving family.
Look up and Look out because even 30 years later, the best is still yet to come.
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.