11/23/2008 - By Chuck Monan, Preaching Minister

Thanksgiving is wonderful and for all kinds of reasons.  To begin with, it has the commendable effect of staving off Christmas.  Whereas in Britain the Christmas shopping season seems nowadays to kick off around about the August bank holiday, Christmas mania doesn’t traditionally begin in America until the last weekend in November. 

Moreover, Thanksgiving remains a pure holiday, largely unsullied by commercialization.  It involves no greeting cards, no trees to trim, no perplexed hunt through drawers and cupboards for decorations.  I love the fact that at Thanksgiving all you do is sit at a table and try to get your stomach into the approximate shape of a beach ball and then go and watch a game of football on TV.  This is my kind of holiday.

But perhaps the nicest, and certainly the noblest, aspect of Thanksgiving is that it gives you a formal, official occasion to give thanks for all those things for which you should be grateful.  I think this is a wonderful idea, and I can’t believe that it hasn’t been picked up by more countries.  Speaking personally, I have a great deal to be thankful for.  I have a wife and children I am crazy about.  I have my health and retain full command of most of my faculties (albeit not always simultaneously).  I live in a time of peace and prosperity.  These are all things for which I am grateful, and I am pleased to let the record show it.

Thanksgiving is indeed a wonderful idea.  It would be fitting for all of us to count our many blessings and name them one by one.  There isn’t room here for all of mine, but here are a few which come to mind:

• A wife who is as good a person as there is.
• Two sons who are a source of pride to their father.
• A dog who is genuinely happy to see me at the end of the day.
• Two parents who are righteous, generous and loving.
• Football, at least until this year.
• Music, particularly Oasis, U2, Wilco, Sigur Ros, and the Kings of Leon.
• The Seekers class.
• The Seniors class that meets on Wednesday morning.
• Working with my friend Hans Oliver in our Singles group.
• Having so many great friends that it is difficult to find time to spend with all of them.
• Books, especially those by Jon Krakauer, Bill Bryson, Philip Yancey and other great writers.
• The Restoration Plea that is alive and well in Churches of Christ.
• The coffee-swilling brethren that are everywhere at PV, who make for great Koffeeklatches.
• Playing golf with an assemblage of characters at PV, some of whom can actually play a little.
• Sitting down with Bill Copeland and listening to Merle Haggard sing “Mama Tried.”
• Road trips.
• Singing along with Jerome Williams as we praise God in our assemblies.
• Watching Bill Oliver work the room with humor and sincerity as he makes everyone in the Seekers class feel welcome.
• Listening to the homespun wisdom of the legendary Lewis Starling.
• Being the Pigskin Preacher during football season on Fridays on 103.7 The Buzz FM and in Today’s Man magazine.
• Seeing PV take on a different “complexion” as this church starts to look more like what the church ought to look like.
• Taking the journey together in the sermon series on Heaven so we can grow in our desire to spend eternity together in our Lord’s Kingdom and in his presence.
• Jeff Spry, a kind and talented man who has changed this church for the better.
• Witnessing the power God unleashes when people are real and transparent as we move toward being a more confessional church.
• Iriana’s pizza.
• Guillermo’s coffee.
• Mild, pleasant winters.
• The amazing power of God’s word to seek out the human heart and speak directly to it, even in the midst of thousands of people.
• So many brothers and sisters at PV who have been so good to me and my family.
• A Savior who died for us while we were yet sinners.
• The power of the promise of resurrection.