As I actively answered my call to ordained ministry, I spent a summer as a pastoral intern and was assigned to Saegertown UMC, which is on the outskirts of Meadville. My time there was positive, affirming, and I met wonderful people who taught me lessons in the very best way --- by how they lived their faith in their lives.
One of my favorite people was an older gentleman named Lou. He was short and delightfully stout, had a buzz cut, wore black, square-framed glasses and had lost his right arm in an accident. He loved to garden and to paint. He and his wife Peg were committed and constant members of the congregation; the kind of people who do the work when needed and support the ministry by all the ways one should: by time, talents, and treasure.
Lou was also a baseball fan and I would go there to watch games on the t.v. with Lou and Peg, who provided ice cold lemonade and incredible home-made cookies.
They attended the weekly Bible studies and the prayer groups and each time the group gathered in a circle of shared prayer, Lou always said the same one word prayer, "Thanks."
I doubt that Lou knew the quote from the German mystic, Meister Eckhart who said, "If the only prayer you ever say in your life is thanks, that would be sufficient;" yet, I'm certain he lived the spirit of that quote.
A Thanksgiving assignment for you --- between cooking and eating and cleaning up and putting away and time for play (see yesterday's post) take some time and write a list of 25 things for which you are thankful. For extra credit, write another list of 50 things you savor.
Thanks --- may we live this prayer.
sj;
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