A Note From Tom: Novemeber 18th, 2011
Hey, everyone!
On this Thanksgiving week, I’m just gonna go ahead and say it…I am SOOOOO THANKFUL!
For YOU!
For how much you praise!
For how much you give!
For how much you care about things that matter!
For how encouraging it is to be at Triple C!
I don’t really know how to say it! I wanted just the right words but I may never find the ones that really say how I feel! I don’t know how to say how much…
…we thank God for all His goodness!
For all His promises!
For loving each of us so wonderfully!
For washing us clean and making us His!
For giving us delicious food and a beautiful country to live in!
For filling our hearts with joy!
For giving the faith to trust Him when it gets tough!
For a life full of family and loving friends!
For something good and sweet to do for Him!
For CCC!
And at the Job house, how we thank God for you!!
Y’know, one person who was totally awesome at finding the perfect word and putting it in the perfect place, was my homeboy, Abe Lincoln! For whatever reason, I’m on a Lincoln kick right now. It comes and goes. Right now, it’s on like donkey kong! And…
…this time I’m blown away with the way a dude who didn’t do two full years of grammar school, and who had to read out loud or at least while moving his lips, (but who taught himself all he needed to know to pass the Illinois state bar exam and become one of the most brilliant lawyers in all the “Land of Lincoln” state) could throw down words!
This is from his first inaugural speech, as some states were turning our United States into Divided Ones. Check this…(try reading it really slowly!)…
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Wow! “…to every living heart and hearthstone…” So cool!!
One time he wrote a letter to General George Meade and he was super upset! The general had defeated Robt. E. Lee at Gettysburg but he didn’t chase them over the Potomac River and the rebels got away. The President wrote to express how mad he was. He ended with this…
“…Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely… Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it...”
Wow.
Funny thing. He never sent it. Lincoln sometimes put his feelings down on a letter and then he’d put it…and them… in a drawer and he’d leave it there.
I guess some things aren’t worth saying. That’s what is so beautiful about a Day of Thanksgiving! Thankful words are the words, instead of other words, that are always welcome! Every day!
The Apostle wrote once in a letter (that he sent!) …
“Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving!” (Ephesians 5.4)
Or as the Message puts it…
“Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect!”
“Don’t get gross! Give thanks!”
In another place, he said that complaining, whining, or cross words are never indicated. But thanks is always appropriate!
So I want to say, “Thank you!...for being you! And for all you do! And I thank God for you!”
Sometimes, at Thanksgiving, you can read the words of President Lincoln’s proclamation, establishing the first official Thanksgiving Day. Here’s some of it…
“Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come…the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. … It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also…fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln”
Only problem with that was…
Lincoln didn’t really write those words. Historians say that his Secretary of State, William Seward actually wrote that.
I could tell.