A Life-Giving Thanksgiving by Pastor Melinda Sparks-Renner
Krista Tippett, in her latest TEDTalk, said this about being whole, “Becoming whole doesn’t mean that we become less strange or wild or complicated. Becoming whole would mean that we orient together away from what is death-dealing and towards what is life-giving.”
Like you, my plate is overflowing. Most of us are in a space of maximum capacity - children, partners, family members, jobs, finances, health concerns, mental health challenges, church responsibilities, and on and on. Add to that the intense stress of juggling the plate to keep it from falling and shattering to pieces. It’s a wonder any of us keep the plate from crashing to the ground. Maybe, like me, you would say that the plate crashes way too often.
A few weeks ago, I was able to attend the Evolving Faith conference, and one of the speakers quoted Howard Thurman - “There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.”
“Listen to the genuine within myself” - that phrase got my attention, and I have been unable to get it out of my brain since.
I’ve been asking myself about the things that are on my plate already, “is this genuine for me?” “Is this life-giving?”. Now, please hear me: not everything we do will always be necessarily “life-giving” - mopping the floor and scrubbing a toilet is most definitely not “the genuine in me,” but it is a part of life that must be taken care of. The tedium and minutiae of our vocations might not be “life-giving,” but must be done. Those are the things that discipline and perseverance must motivate us to do.
But I have been able to identify a couple of things on my plate already that are not flourishing for me; they are not genuine, they are “death-dealing,” and I have decided to remove them from the plate. No amount of discipline or perseverance will make them work for me or anyone else - they cause me inordinate amounts of anxiety and stress. After years of trying to force them to be genuine or life-giving, they are not. And so they must go.
During the time of Thanksgiving, we all hear about how we should be thankful for all the things and we should. No mistake about it, we need to be grateful - for there is so much to be grateful for.
But this season, I want to encourage you to ask yourself, “What is the genuine in me?”
“What is making me whole, giving me life?”
“What or who is pulling strings on me that does not offer me wholeness?”
You know who gives me life? You, beloved Imag