Happy Black Friday everybody. For those of you who, after years of day-after-Thanksgiving sales, are starting to feel a bit like a trout in a lake full of trout surrounded by worms dangling from shiny metal objects, here are two alternatives to Black Friday that might not hurt in the throat as much:

Buy Nothing Day.

Make Something Day.

OK, that having been said, there were a lot of great posts this last week about Thanksgiving. Three of them, though, seemed ominously similar to what I tried to say to my brothers and sisters (and guests) at our annual Thanksgiving dinner.

Quit stealing my ideas, guys.

Eugene Cho expounds on two simple thoughts, You are Blessed and Remember the Vulnerable.

Richard Dahlstrom gives the theme a bit of a twist. "'And there was a famine...' is what Genesis says, and only then are the wheels set in motion for God's chosen family to begin their process of profound transformation." Hmmm...?

Mike Todd, though, hits the nail on the head, I think:

"I would humbly submit that thanking God for our current circumstances can sometimes be a way of whitewashing over the fact that we have been very successful in our pursuit of the wrong things. In the cases where this is true, it is our fault, not God's. Thanking God for the results does not change this. So be thankful for those things you have that moth and rust cannot destroy, and for those things that thieves cannot break in and steal."

Yep.

Grace and Peace,
Raffi