There are a lot of people taking stances against holidays these days. I just squeezed by All Hallows Eve,( or was it SamHain, Day of the dead?) Anyway I just got by it without attacks for not letting my children dress up and consume copious amounts of candy after dark. If our American Halloween didn't have so many dark origins I wouldn't hide from October 31st like Ebola contamination on a NYC subway. You can't fool this child of God when it's literally written in Thessalonians 5:22 "Abstain from ALL appearance of evil."(I can't get past the word ALL can you?)
I assume Halloween is a no brainer for a biblical Christian. Parading around at night, dressed up, surrounded with skeletons and ghosts doesn't feel....nice. My children quake at things that go bump in the night, and I can't tell them about the light of God amidst things death related in a spooky, satanic like seeing sense.Trying not to contradict myself we dress up and eat candy constantly during the year just to make up for it. I even sport a nose piercing and dark eyeliner not to feel left out.
You can really see my nose in this picture.
Straight from dressing up, zombies and free fun sized pieces of candy we jump into Thanksgiving. Right after we have Christmas, but that's another post and another time. Let's just focus on Thanksgiving.This holiday came about because some radical Christians survived a hostile environment over there in 1620 something. Puritans or "pilgrims" as we fondly refer to them in kindergarten were so God fearing that they would have shuddered at the way Americans dress, the way they celebrate Halloween,(had to throw that one in) and in the way they viewed God. I mean you wouldn't have associated with Puritanism. You would have considered them harsh and unloving, judgmental bible freaks like everyone else did. England kind of washed the Thames with them, hence the pilgrims pilgrimage.....(tongue twister). For Puritanism Christmas was a drunken, debauchery of idol worship. Holidays were not usually practiced in those days.
Throughout history we have blurbs of public thankfulness with George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and finally in1941 our grandparents got the full "day off holiday" declared by congress. Now to be honest, America probably partook in turkified thankfulness because the government declared a day off. Still this was back in the day when Sunday's were still treated at the biblical level of the day of rest. Nothing was open, not even gas stations, go ask Grandma if you're in doubt.
Now it's 2014; the only places closed on the last Thursday of every month are government centered. Stores are open, turkeys are in peril of extinction (at Kroger anyway) pilgrims have smiling faces and American Indians look like they want to give up their homes, land and heritage. (Wait the American Indian was here first go figure!!!!)
I often wonder how an atheist attempts to celebrate "Thanksgiving." I assume this is going against the belief of no God. Who to direct the thanks to our toe, our stuffing? (In the turkey I mean not the stuffing in the couch don't be ridiculous!)
Why are all these alternative religions honouring a day about the God of the Bible invented by radical Christians? I'm so confused as to whom we are thanking without that key, historical element .Between all the shopping, eating, socializing, how is that thankful. I can do that on a random Friday night, I can always sit at a big table and be like;
"Ya wow I have a job, car, family, well um thanks! Wow yes THANKS, to well to something, to someone....good thing for the theory of evolution and the big bang because BANG I have stuff that makes ME happy."
I could have turkey soup with some pumpkin puree and try to feel thankful to some unknown thing because I'm not you know a believer. Then I'd take a nap, watch the game and go shopping at midnightin the cold for stuff made in China. This would result in a jump in stocks, Wal-Mart's gains would soar, I'd have more stuff cause it was on sale and I'd be.... thankful? China doesn't even celebrate Thanksgiving.
America, someday you will catch onto Thanksgiving. Somebody will outlaw the very notion just like Christmas.
Already you have our attention with our debit cards on Thursday night. You have us with all those commercials, the football game, the cute turkey pilgrim cut outs. We don't need thanksgiving for that, soon we'll have no need for thanks. Someone will realize you can't be thankful all by itself. A person cannot be randomly thankful in a randomness of unbelief, at an accidental thing without a name or circumstance with which to address it in total, utter thanksgiving of heart and self.
I'm not celebrating Thanksgiving with you if there isn't someone in which to address directly.
I've searched for the equivalent of thanksgiving amidst our cultural beliefs.For something which sums up the essence of thanksgiving. I don't think the Oscar's, or Grammy's are equivalent to being thankful. It's weird when you give a speech like;
"Thank you for hair makeup, for making me famous, for lighting, Photoshop and an R rated review."
Yeah, um, no.
Maybe I should try Americanized thankful by celebrating as they do. However I shop Goodwill they're government they're closed. I'm not into sports, I eat venison, my children are being taught that the first pilgrims were puritan, that Squanto was a believer, and yes we stole from the American Indians, we put them on reservations instead of having them for dinner. I know turkeys are the theme but I think they're aggressive birds and not very pretty. See I'm already a weirdo.
I've also attempted to participate in pagen/heathen/non-religion thankfulness.
"SO thankful for friends today ."
"Thankful for family."
"Happy turkey day!
I don't like turkeys, the feet claws thing is creepy, and how could it be a "happy turkey" if you eat him?
And whom am I thankful towards, it's not about a me day as in "me" cause I actually have friends? Or because my family actually wants to be around me for a day?
LITERALLY.
And literally I'm not a fan of turkeys.
I can't pretend that it all boils down to a bird.
Can you?
Then I found this:
James 1:17 - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 - In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Psalms 107:1 - O give thanks unto the LORD, for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] for ever.
Ephesians 5:20 - Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Matthew 6:25-34 - Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? (Read More...)
Psalms 50:14 - Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
Psalms 100:1-5 - (A Psalm of praise.) Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. (Read More...)
Hebrews 13:15 - By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name.
Lamentations 3:23 - [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.
Psalms 31:19 - [Oh] how great [is] thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; [which] thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
Luke 6:38 - Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Psalms 116:12 - What shall I render unto the LORD [for] all his benefits toward me?
Isaiah 38:19-20 - The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I [do] this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. (Read More...)
Deuteronomy 8:11-14 - Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: (Read More...)
Colossians 3:15 - And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Romans 12:1 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.
Psalms 92:1-15 - (A Psalm [or] Song for the sabbath day.) [It is a] good [thing] to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: (Read More...)
Isaiah 12:1-6 - And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. (Read More...)
Psalms 75:1 - (To the chief Musician, Altaschith, A Psalm [or] Song of Asaph.) Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, [unto thee] do we give thanks: for [that] thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
Leviticus 7:11-15 - And this [is] the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the LORD. (Read More...)
James 5:13 - Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing.
Psalms 92:1-5 - (A Psalm [or] Song for the sabbath day.) [It is a] good [thing] to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: (Read More...)
Hebrews 2:1-8 - Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them] slip. (Read More...)
How could anyone celebrate Thanksgiving without God, without His Word ? It simply doesn't exist. America's cheap,cheesy, false little glimmer of being thankful is empty without a God to fill it.
This is why I'm not celebrating Thanksgiving.
This year I'm giving my total appreciation, my humble, imperfect, falling short thank you to my Almighty Lord the one the pilgrims were really thanking.
Without Christ there wouldn't be one thing I could be thankful for, everything is dust, empty and mortal with a timer soon to go off.
Keep your turkey America, I have Jesus.
