Show Notes
In this Thanksgiving episode, Derek Vreeland reflects on the significance of gratitude in the Christian faith, sharing personal stories and insights about Thanksgiving traditions, the importance of recognizing God’s mercy, and practical habits for cultivating gratitude in everyday life. He emphasizes that gratitude is not just a seasonal practice but a vital part of the Christian journey, encouraging listeners to develop a mindset of thankfulness throughout the year.
Scriptures mentioned in this episode:
Psalm 136: 1-9
Luke 17: 11-19
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Transcript
Narrator: Welcome to Peaceable and Kind, the podcast where we explore the transformation. Of living out Jesus’ call to peace and kindness in our everyday lives. Each week your host, Derek Vreeland, will delve into the stories, scriptures, and practical steps that help us embody these essential Christian virtues.
Derek Vreeland: Welcome back to another episode of Peaceable and Kind. I am your host, Derek Vreeland, and today is Thanksgiving. I hope you are experiencing a day full of gratitude. I don’t know if you’re listening to this episode on Thanksgiving or not. Maybe you’re listening a little bit later. But I want to wish you and your friends, your family, a very, very happy Thanksgiving. And let me invite you, if you have not already, to subscribe to this podcast and if you appreciate Christian content like this if you wouldn’t mind leaving a rating and review that helps And if you know someone who might be encouraged by this content, if you’d share this episode or another episode with them, I’d appreciate it. Because it is Thanksgiving, I am in the mood to give thanks. You know, American Thanksgiving is not A part of the Christian calendar, it’s not technically a Christian holiday. It’s more of an American holiday and Americans, we have all of our traditions uh surrounding Thanksgiving. I would imagine the only time you are baking a turkey is on Thanksgiving. When I was in seminary, I had the opportunity to connect with a number of international students who were coming from different countries to study with us. I enjoyed getting to know people from all over the world, uh, from Thailand, from India, from South Korea in particular, as well as a number of different Europeans. But I had one friend in particular that we formed a a relationship during seminary and he was from India And he had moved to the States uh to go to school and had never experienced anything of American culture. And so when it was Thanksgiving, I invited him to our apartment. My wife and I had a small little two-bedroom apartment. But my wife has normally always cooked the Thanksgiving meal. And so I wanted my friend to experience an American Thanksgiving. So he came and and while he was with us, we were explaining to him the traditions. As Christians, we normally give thanks before the meal. So we certainly did that on Thanksgiving. Giving God thanks is a part of the tradition, at least for us. And then of course we had turkey. You have to eat turkey on Thanksgiving. And then after we ate more than we could hold almost, we were just absolutely stuffed. We moved to the couch and then we’re gonna watch football, of course, American football And I told my friend, now as we’re watching this game, we may not necessarily care for either team, but we watch football on Thanksgiving. That’s a part of the tradition. And then if you fall asleep and take a nap in the middle of the football game, then you have completed the trifecta of traditions for American Thanksgiving. And that is one eating turkey, number two, watching football, and number three, falling asleep while watching football Uh we had a great day that day and maybe a week later I was talking to my friend and he said at church that Sunday and at this time we were attending different churches He said he went to church that Sunday and people asked him, Oh, did you have an American Thanksgiving? And he was so proud to say, Yes, I ate turkey, watched football. fell asleep watching football and everyone chuckled and uh he felt like uh he had experienced uh a true American tradition. So while Thanksgiving is an American tradition, it’s not necessarily a Christian tradition, but it is one that I think Christians can enter into. And I’m not just talking about the turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and rolls and pumpkin pie, although I’m here for all of it. Particularly, I’m here for the sweet potatoes. I’m learning that not everyone loves sweet potatoes as much as I do. Our church hosted a Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and it was prepared by our staff, and while we were planning things out, someone suggested adding sweet potatoes We had done the traditional turkey and gravy and mashed potato, green bean casserole, desserts and things. And someone had suggested that we add sweet potatoes to the menu. to which I was ecstatic. I was like, absolutely, we need sweet potatoes for a Thanksgiving dinner. And then all sorts of people around the table were shaking their heads like, sweet potatoes are gross. So I’m just learning this. This is new to me So I’m curious, uh hit me up on social media and let me know, are you pro sweet potatoes or not? Uh because I’m learning this that this is a bit controversial, that not everyone’s as excited about sweet potatoes. I like sweet potatoes. any way I can get ‘em. If I go to a restaurant, like a bar and grill kind of restaurant, and they give you the option to upcharge for sweet potato fries, I always pay the extra amount to get that. But let me know. Hit me up on social media at Derek Vreeland. You can find me on Instagram, on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. You can catch me on Facebook. I’m also on Blue Sky now. Hit me up at Derek Vreeland is my handle. Let me know are you pro sweet potatoes or not? But this podcast episode is not necessarily about the traditional food at Thanksgiving, but the tradition of giving thanks. I believe that this is one that Christians practice, but if we are going to spread the peace of Christ If we’re going to spread kindness and mercy throughout our world, then I think Christians in particular need to adopt a posture of gratitude. Because giving thanks is a part of what we do as followers of Jesus. The communion meal. And I don’t know about your church and your tradition, how often you celebrate the Lord’s Supper. In our church, we come to the Lord’s table every Sunday. But one of the traditional words for communion is Eucharist. Eucharist is an Anglicized word. that comes from a Greek word that means to give thanks. In part what we’re doing when we come to the table of the Lord to Confess our sins and to walk down a pathway of humility and contrition and to meet with Jesus as we’re also giving thanks. Part of what we do in celebrating the the body and the blood of Christ broken and shed for us, we’re proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes, but we are also giving thanks So, in one sense, for Christians, the communion meal is a kind of Thanksgiving meal every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. But Christians have also had a tradition of giving thanks through prayer. Whenever I think about my prayer life when it’s at its best, when it’s at its most consistent when it’s at its most life-giving. It’s when I am giving thanks to God Which reminds me of Psalm 136. The book of Psalms is a collection of prayers, given to us by our Jewish ancestors. The Christian faith grew out of Jewish soil And the early Christians saw the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, the sacred book of the Jewish people, as a part of Christian scripture. And from the very beginning, the psalms were regarded as Christian prayers. Of course, they were composed by Jewish people, but they have been a part of Christian prayer and Christian liturgy from almost the beginning. For me, we have a local tradition in our church of praying one psalm for the day. But on Thanksgiving, whatever Psalm is assigned for that day, on Thanksgiving Day, I want to pray Psalm 136. Because it opens with the first three verses saying, give thanks to the Lord. Psalm 136 also has the repeated line for his mercy endures forever And here’s just the first nine verses, Psalm 136, verse 9. Listen to this prayer. Listen to the cadence and the poetry of this prayer. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his mercy endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, for his mercy endures forever. Who only does great wonders for his mercy endures forever Who by wisdom made the heavens, for his mercy endures forever, Who spread out the earth upon the waters, for his mercy endures for ever Who created great lights, for his mercy endures forever. The sun to rule the day, for his mercy endures forever. The moon and the stars to govern the night for his mercy endures forever. This is a psalm for Thanksgiving Day, not only because it opens with the lines, Give thanks to the Lord, but that repetitive for his mercy endures for ever. The Hebrew word mercy is the word Hesed, which in other translations is translated loving kindness. But I appreciate this translation that uses the word mercy, for his mercy endures forever. And so this Psalm continues for 26 verses. with acknowledging what God has done and then saying for his mercy endures forever. And I believe it This is my hope in this life and in the next life that the mercy of God has no end. And so as we’re thinking about giving thanks today, the first thing I want to give thanks to is God for his never-ending, never-dying mercy. I depend upon the mercy of God, and when do I need the mercy of God? Right now, today, and every day Some days I find myself like the prodigal son, who’s out wasting the father’s inheritance Other days I’m the older brother who is smug and self righteous and won’t come to the party So I need the mercy of God every day. I depend upon the mercy of God every day. And I believe that that mercy is never extinguished. But God’s mercy endures forever. So let me ask you, what are you thankful for today? And I know that this question is a matter of perspective because I don’t know where you are in what season of life you find yourself. I don’t know if you’re in a Difficult season of life filled with struggle and setback and challenges and failure, or perhaps you’re in a season of life where everything seems to be going your way But being thankful and giving God thanks is a matter of perspective My experience has shown me that really none of us have it all together. None of us have a perfect life Indeed, we have either just fought some kind of battle, we’re in a current battle or struggle, or we’re preparing for one. Because life is hard, life is difficult, life presents its challenges. And there’s no reason to compare your struggles to someone else. People often do that. They’ll say, well, At least I’m not as bad off as those people. But I have found that it’s not helpful and it doesn’t produce a good attitude within us to compare our struggles to others Some people will even feel guilty that they’re struggling with something in their life because they’re comparing themselves. And they’re like, well, I’m not as bad off, so I really shouldn’t worry about these things. No, I think it’s good to acknowledge our struggles, our challenges, to prepare for those, to pray about those things. But the attitude of gratitude, the habit of giving thanks, is really a matter of perspective. Certainly, we give attention to our struggles, our failures, our challenges, but we also need to focus on those things that we would consider blessings in our life. Indeed, I think if you struggle with gratitude, if you find yourself in a rut where you are complaining and you’re sullen and you’re frustrated and aggravated. just all the time, if you’re in that kind of rut, let me suggest that perhaps what you need is to form new habits of gratitude. So as I’m asking you today, what are you thankful for? Perhaps your initial response is to think about everything you’re upset about, everything you’re frustrated about. So perhaps even today you could begin to form new habits because new habits begin to form and shape who we are. We become grateful people when we do grateful things. We develop a mindset of gratitude when we develop habits of giving thanks. So again, let me ask, what are you thankful for today? As you look at the landscape of your life as it is right now, what are you thankful for? In addition to the mercy of God, I’m thankful for life itself. Life is a gift from God. The fact that you and I are alive right now, that we’re breathing right now, that you’re listening and I’m talking right now is a gift. That we have breath in our lungs, that we have thoughts in our brains, these are all gifts from God. And I’m thankful. I’m thankful for life. And I’m thankful for new life. I am thankful that in and through Jesus Christ I have experienced new life. A new covenant, a new relationship between God and God’s people. Last night I picked up my son at Youth Group. We have a youth group at our church, Life Youth. which is going through such a wonderful season. It’s not just a season of growth, even though they’re seeing more and more students, but my son, who’s a freshman in high school, he wants to get there early and he wants to stay late. Because they have cultivated such a culture of kindness where students want to be there and they want to be with each other. They enjoy worshiping together. studying and discussing the things of God together. It’s great. And in picking him up and being there at the youth service just reminded me that it was fifteen years old when Jesus came into my life. I first made a confession of faith and was baptized when I was eleven, but when I was 15 years old, I had this dramatic encounter with the love of God revealed in the gospel, revealed in the story of Jesus, particularly his death and resurrection. So I was the age that my son is now when I had that initial encounter with Jesus And I experienced a new life. It felt like the next Monday morning when I went to school that I was a different person. And within a couple of weeks or a couple of months, my friends at school started asking me, what happened? Like, you you’re changing. You’re not the same person. And I was able to express that, well, this is what Jesus has done in my life. So I’m thankful. For the new life that we have in Jesus. I’m also thankful today for the gift of love for love experienced in my family, in my friends, in my church family. Some skeptics question the existence of the Christian God. Can this God be true? Can this God be real? Is Jesus really the Son of God, the way, the truth, and life, the only way to the Father? And sometimes skeptics will say, well, I don’t believe in this God because of the problem of evil. This is a denial of the existence of God because They would reason, if God is all good, all loving, and all powerful, then why is there evil in the world? This is the problem of evil. How can God be real good and loving and all powerful, and yet there be tsunamis and hurricanes and brain cancer and all sorts of evil in the world? And whenever I am questioned by someone who holds that point of view, I always like to flip it around and ask them, what about the problem of good? When they’re asking about the problem of evil, I want to ask, why is there goodness, beauty, kindness, justice, and most important, why is there love in the world? If, I will ask them, you subscribe to a more Darwinian uh perspective on the existence of human life, the idea that It’s the strong that dominate over the weak, the survival of the fittest. If you hold to that, let’s call it a worldview, then why is there goodness in the world? Why is it when there is a natural disaster that people give money and resources and even their very time to help their neighbors? Why is there beauty in creation? How is it that people can stand in front of a beautiful mountain vista? or a sunset at the beach and stand in awe of something so beautiful they can’t express with words. And why is there love? Not just the instincts of love, like a mother’s instincts to love her child, but why is there a thing that we’ve all experienced called love? For me, I believe in God because I believe in love. I believe love is a real thing. And I believe that love became embodied in a person, in Jesus Christ. And so I’m thankful for the love that I’ve received from God, and I’m thankful today for the love that I get to share with my family, with my friends, with my church. There’s one story of gratitude in the Gospels that I’m often drawn to. And this is one of the miracle stories of Jesus, Jesus healing. a a group of lepers and I want to read it to you from the message translation. It’s a short little story, about eight verses or so. Let me read this story. I want to make a few comments and then wrap up this episode by giving you some specific habits of gratitude that you can practice, that you can start even today. But first, listen to this from Luke 17, and I’m going to read from the Message Translation. The Message Bible is a contemporary translation, so this may sound a little different in your ears. But listen to this story. It happened that as Jesus made his way towards Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance, but raised their voices, calling out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us Taking a good look at them, he said, Go, show yourselves to the priests. They went, and while still on their way, they became clean One of them, when he realized he was healed, turned around and came back shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeling at Jesus’ feet was so grateful. He couldn’t thank him enough, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus said, Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider? Then he said to him, Get up on your way. Your faith has healed and saved you I love this story because Jesus chooses a Samaritan who was healed as the hero of the story. In the first century Jewish world, Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along. They despised and hated one another. Jewish people saw Samaritans as outsiders, as outcasts. But in this story, like in many stories, Jesus chooses an outsider to be the protagonist to be the hero of the story So these ten lepers who are experiencing this horrible disease, leprosy is a disease by which you can no longer feel pain. And so lepers will often injure themselves and have injuries that get infected. Horrible, horrible disease. So there were ten of them, and notice when they came to Jesus what they cried out They said, Master, have mercy on us. See, Jesus embodied the mercy of God, showing us that what Psalm 136 said is true, and that is the mercy of God. is never ending. The mercy of God goes on forever. So they cry out for mercy, and they are healed of their leprosy. But it’s only one, the Samaritan Presumably, the other nine lepers were Jewish people, they would have seen Jesus as one of their own, but they took Jesus for granted. But not this one. He turns and when he goes back to Jesus, he is shouting his gratitude. He is so thankful for what Jesus has done, he cannot contain himself. But he is shouting in gratitude, he is giving thanks to God, he even kneels In humble respect before Jesus, and I love how the message translation renders it, he couldn’t thank him enough. This is a model for us. I think we can learn from this one Samaritan who is healed That as we recognize blessings in our lives, good things in our lives, that we begin to form habits of Giving God thanks for those things. So let me give you some specific practices, five habits of gratitude that you can begin to practice even today. Let me give you these five. Number one, Start your day with gratitude. I do think it’s important that we develop habits at the beginning of our day Perhaps you have developed habits of Bible reading or prayer in the morning. That’s good. I have morning habits that actually start with coffee. I believe in the proverb that says, faith without coffee is dead. So if I’m going to start my day in gratitude, it starts with coffee and really good coffee. But start your day with gratitude. Begin in the early, early moments of the morning to find things that you can give God thanks for. And maybe post that on social media. You know, social media can become such a toxic cesspool of arguments and just the worst part of society So maybe develop habits. If you find yourself on social media in the morning, maybe start with gratitude on social media. Post something that you’re thankful for Number two, appreciate the little things. Look for the simple joys of life. like fresh brewed coffee. I’m thinking about coffee today and how much I appreciate and I have an entire liturgy for my coffee because I have to have filtered water I grind my beans every morning. I open up the grinder and I I smell that aroma and then I scoop out into my French press. I boil the water. I uh pour the water on top of the grounds, let it steep four to five minutes, push that plunger down. pour out that first cup and watch it bubble a little bit and almost foam at the top and take that first sip. Oh, and how I want to give God thanks for that. I want to give God thanks for the simple pleasures of life, like really good coffee, like sunshine, like beauty in nature When you look outside, look for beauty. Find beauty in the greengrass. Find beauty in the rain that comes at springtime. Find beauty in autumn leaves. And if you live in colder climates, find beauty in the ice and the snow. Appreciate those little things. That’s a good habit for developing this attitude of gratitude. Number three, develop habits of expressing your gratitude to others. Tell other people what you appreciate about them. And be careful with that. Don’t go overboard with complimenting people all the time. Sometimes it sounds a little forced and inauthentic. But when a coworker, when someone in your family does something that you recognize is is good or helpful or beneficial, express your gratitude to them Number four, celebrate small wins. Take time to acknowledge and be grateful for your accomplishments in your life, even the small ones Just last fall, I was mulching up leaves in my yard. We are surrounded my neighborhood by very large mature trees. We have oak trees, there’s a maple tree, a large sycamore tree And the sycamore tree, which is in my neighbor’s yard across the street from me, it drops these huge leaves. And I don’t rake my leaves as much as I mulch them up. I have a mulching blade on my mower. And I was chasing down this one sycamore leaf and I couldn’t I couldn’t get it under my mower to mulch it because as I would lift my mower to try to get to that leaf the wind created by the blade would push it away. And I chased that thing a good two minutes and then finally crunched it, finally mulched it up. and a little smile broke out on my face because I was celebrating a small win. So you might have setbacks and major things in your life. Celebrate those small wins. Take your wins when you can get ‘em. And finally, include gratitude in prayer. This is the last habit. When you pray, make sure you give thanks to God. and maybe you don’t know exactly what to say or how to express your gratitude in prayer. Take the line from Psalm 136, verse 1, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good His mercy endures forever. And you can make that your own prayer. You can say, God, I give you thanks, for you are good, and your mercy endures forever. Well, that’s all we have for today’s episode. Thanks for joining me for this one. God bless you. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Guest: Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.