Flying the day after Thanksgiving with Rev. Darby

I am borrowing this from my friend Reverend Joseph Darby of Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, SC. He sends out mid-week meditations. This one works on a Friday.

~ MID-WEEK MEDITATION ~

Based on Psalm 100

          This Thursday, my family will gather like many families on Thanksgiving Day.  We’ll give thanks to God for our many blessings, eat till we’re stuffed, watch Thanksgiving Day parades and football games on TV and generally enjoy a pleasant day.  Thanksgiving Day is joyful and special but for many people, the next day is just as special for a different reason.

            The Friday after Thanksgiving is the customary start of the Christmas shopping season.  Many stores will open early - some as early as midnight - for crowds of shoppers seeking incredibly low priced merchandise.  There’ll be long lines of people waiting to get into stores, and some sad stories of shoppers injured in the midst of unruly crowds relentlessly seeking fantastic bargains.

            Those Friday after Thanksgiving “fantastic bargain” items are usually in very limited supply and sell out quickly, but many merchants count on disappointed people not just turning around and going home.  Good business sense says that if you get people into your store with the promise of a “great deal,” they’ll stay - even if the “great deals” are sold out - get caught up in the need to buy something, and spend more money than they intended to spend on other more abundant and more expensive merchandise.

            For many of us, the “great deal” isn’t just a Friday after Thanksgiving phenomenon.  It’s very easy for all of us to get caught up in the quest for the “greatest deals” in life with the least amount of cost or effort in time, talent or treasure.  We all crave peace of mind, prosperity and well-being, and sometimes go after what looks and sounds good, easy and enticing - only to find out that we often don’t get what we bargained for or expected and that we end up paying a greater price in effort, aggravation and frustration.

            That’s why it’s good to trust in the Lord.  When we really believe that God knows what we need and when we need it and that God never fails to provide for us, we can abandon our pursuit of “great deals” and trust a Great God to make a way for us, provide for us and bless us right on time.

            Life’s “great deals” can sometimes lead to disappointment, stress, anxiety and confusion, but when we trust in the Jesus who one Scripture writer said is the same yesterday, today and forever, we can face life trusting not in this world or those in it, but in the Christ who led one hymn writer to say, “All that you need, He will provide, God will take care of you.  Nothing you need will be denied, God will take care of you.”

Get Ready for Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            Join us on the Fourth Sunday in November for Church School at 9:45 am and for Worship at 8 am and 11 am.  The Combined Choir, Mime Ministry and Generation of Praise Choir will offer praise.