Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
That time of year is upon us again when we think about how much we’ve been blessed (Thanksgiving) as well as how much more we’ll be blessed (Christmas and New Year's). It doesn’t matter which holiday we’re celebrating; each one is associated with food and should be based in thankfulness for provision. Whether we’re celebrating a national or religious holiday, we’ve got much to be thankful for in our country, including food-wise. Through our abundant natural resources and agricultural knowledge and technology, God provides America with the most safe and secure and least expensive food in the world.
Even with a population of over 7 billion and growing, global agriculture produces enough food for each person to have 2,900 calories per day. That’s a lot more than my doctor says I need (but maybe less than I actually consume occasionally; nonetheless, I know this is a terrible time to mention that four-letter word “DIET”).
Anyway, hunger still exists, not because of a food shortage, but because of poverty and corrupt politics, mostly in underdeveloped nations. That shouldn’t keep us from trying to help the needy. Too often, we only consider the less fortunate during the winter holiday season, but we should help them year-round, whenever we have the opportunity (Galatians 6:9-10; James 1:22-27; 2:14-17; 1 John 4:16-18; Matthew 25:31-46).
This leads us to our appropriate response to God’s greatness in meeting our needs physically so well that we need not/should not worry about them (Matthew 6:25-34). Actually, approaching God through prayer as one of his children is worship, in that, it is an acknowledgement of his greatness and grace with thanksgiving (Hebrews 4:16; Philippians 4:4-7).
Our thankfulness is actually an expression of acceptable worship (Hebrews 12:28-29). Regarding acceptable worship, by inspiration, Paul said offering ourselves as living sacrifices is reasonable worship (Romans 11:33-12:1). Paul goes on to describe some acts of reasonable (acceptable in God’s eyes) worship by a living sacrifice in Romans 12:2-21 (Acts 10:34-35; Matthew 7:12; 5:43-48).
We have a lot of evil in the world today, and Christians must do all the good they can to overcome it. I could go on a holy tirade about the evil among us, but I’d rather write about the good we can do (Ephesians 5:8-12).
Learning about food drives and Coats for Kids at school, for which we should be thankful, is much more pleasant than hearing about the evils going on in America. We need to know when those happen, but we’d rather they didn’t happen, and they’d certainly be less common if we’d all bring our children up in the training and admonition of the Lord, praising God for what he has accomplished through us as others come to know him and acknowledge him as Lord (Ephesians 6:4; Romans 15:18; 10:8-17; Acts 22:16).
Anyway, during this holiday season and throughout the year, let’s overcome evil with good as our expression of thanksgiving and to instill in others the desire to worship God acceptably (Matthew 5:14-16).
Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected]