DISCLAIMER! I am not sure this post will have much to do with the general topic of “Singledom” yet, it’s still a day we all have the choice to either, enjoy, endure, or otherwise survive! (Or perhaps even a combination of all the above?)
I also don’t know if it will have more parts than this or not – but you have been warned!
It’s true, I am not a fan of Halloween, yet, I find it appropriate (in a way) that it kicks off the “Holiday Season” as we now call it. I think it’s good we get used to the idea of being scared as we enter the weeks before Thanksgiving. Truly, we all have “those” relatives who we would prefer to stay relatively far away from…We all have an “Aunt Batty” who has a few bats in her belfry. Then we have the endless varieties of cranberry sauce, jello, relish or salad, how do you which one you have? Some of which can be quite tart in their presentation.
Alas, I am trying to be a little tart in my presentation above, as I ran across something today as I was trying to decide what on earth to do with an old journal. The one in question had about 35 of the 180 +/- pages written on and one of the earlier entries was based on two people embroiled in complaining about food. Ironically enough, the food in question was that from a Thanksgiving dinner presented by a local church.
The journal entry was never finished, but I think it holds some truth and “interesting” points…without further ado, here is the entry entitled, “The longest two miles” (November 2009)
“Recently, I attended a dinner at a local church. Mind you, those who ran the dinner had no culinary background & had a limited budget to boot.
The trouble with living in the land of plenty, is that it leaves plenty of room for complaint. We are very spoiled here, I can go to the cupboard & choose from 16 varieties of cereal; never mind that I don’t like 1/2 of them.
It’s quite possible all 16 varieties have been opened and sampled and are now ever closer to their expiration date. Which brings me to my next point, the church dinner, while not the greatest, definitely had the main ingredient – Love.
Those who comprised the complaints during the longest two miles were those closest to their natural expiration dates.”
Thankfully, the complainants have not reached their “natural expiration dates” and looking back, I am not sure what that sentence really had to do with anything I had written previously. Other than perhaps, that they should have known better than to complain about a “free meal”, one they did not have to prepare…I know my motivation for having them attend the dinner was more than just a night out. It was their focus afterwards which saddened me; I was hoping they would have picked up on more than the mashed potatoes were packaged and thus not “real”.
I think, my motivation for writing that was how “un-thankful” we can be, especially around a day we have specifically set aside for that purpose, in addition to where is our focus? Is it only on what we can see in front of us? Is it on some future event or days of yore? I was hoping they would set their focus off from the food and onto the call of Christ that night, as there is more to this life than analyzing potatoes.
I cannot force, cajole, or otherwise persuade others to receive Christ, or to be thankful, grateful, or otherwise happy, in our dower, materialistically consumed culture. But as a single, solitary person, I am going to make an effort of being “thankful” not only in the weeks to come leading up to Thanksgiving, but until my ‘natural expiration date’.
Perhaps I will keep a running list starting today with one thing I am thankful for and see if I can keep it up for 365 days – until November 4, 2018. I would like to challenge you, my “39 readers” to do the same, and let us make a date to come together on Sunday, November 4. 2018 and compare lists!
Until then, be well, be thankful and don’t expire. Rather INSPIRE others to be thankful!
Single Slice of Cheese 