Twinkies and Thanksgiving

Twinkies and Thanksgiving

            With every year, I appreciate the apostle Paul's words, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).

            In our lives, rich- poor, intelligent-stupid, by hook or crook, we all have a vocation. This writer is so ashamed of his record in his vocation as husband, father, even Christian laymen, representative of Jesus Christ. I could have done so much better. BUT, so thankful to have been chosen, elected, having the eternal spirit of God in my heart.

            In this information age, preaching, teaching, every area of media, there are young people who still have no knowledge that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their redemption. They know rock-rap lyrics, too vulgar for conversation. Of course, they have never heard evangelical hymns, nor even Handel's Messiah, even Johan Sebastian Bach's, "Sheep may safely graze on pasture. When the shepherd guards them well." They are like the woman in East Berlin telling me it had been a long time since she had seen a banana as she held up a cucumber.

            This totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer veteran, completely insulted-embarrassed-distressed, learning of the African studies program at his alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill. This writer so remembers not only the hard work of study but the hard times of off campus work trying to pay the bills (8 years-school during the day, work at night).

            Mary Willingham has blown the whistle, News Observer Raleigh, NC November 17, 2012 (http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/17/2490476/insider-unc-tolerated-cheating.html). Student-athletes, all school expenses paid, who have never read a book, do not recognize a paragraph. Two hundred "African Studies" courses, no show (no class attendance), all that's required is just one paper and it plagiarized.

            And so it is the comic-comedy, harassment of diligence on Thanksgiving, 2012. 

            Traveling the world, every continent, children much the same the world over. As they approach with their begging bowls, bloated stomachs, they know thankfulness for any food. I often wondered just how many of these children have known sweets and then we learn that Hostess is closing down, manufacturer of the famous, "Twinkie." It is not that 15,000 workers are out of jobs but union bosses are more anxious about their payday than the welfare of workers, thankfulness of people, both children and adults for the Hostess products.

            In a nation where 1/4 of the evangelicals voted for the Obama abomination, many still know the joy of thanking God for food...sparse or bountiful, since 1863 when President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday. Mostly the family, but even corporate citizenry has recognized the day.

            I well remember my parents taking food to an orphanage on Thanksgiving. Later, a child at that orphanage, a college President, told this writer that it was the only day of the year that he was not hungry. Both Dr. Raper and this writer new the significance of Paul's words " As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, [so] walk ye in him:

Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Col 2:6-7).

            This Thanksgiving, in spite of everything, poverty of childhood, challenges of education, marginization due to disability, this writer as does most of the disenfranchised of the world, has the blessed assurance of knowing that the blessed right hand of God has led and protected all the way (Acts 2:33).

            Mortimer Adler, editor of the encyclopedia Britannica, believed in and wrote much about angels. Like this writer, Adler and others, know we have a guardian angel. Just as we must fear the dark powers of the air, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]" (Eph 6:12). We know we have the protection of God. To know the election, protection, of the shepherd who know us, is sufficient reason for Thanksgiving. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). 

            Terrible things happen to people every day, highways, runaway technology, just think how much worse it could be without the protection of the creator of the universe.

            Only a few Christians have understood. This writer, in days the before total blindness, still attempting to drive, mostly by the white lines in the highway, never when dark. Driving my new Cadillac, I got caught on the highway as darkness set in. Just before I drove under a large truck, my guardian angel took over, steered my car around the truck, never slowing down. I had nothing to do with it, ALL OF GOD.

            It is not turkey or Twinkies that make for a great Thanksgiving, but thankful hearts starting with you as you look in the mirror.