I am not a fan of forced gratitude and have even preached about it. I’ve pointed out if that if we make a cult out of gratitude, we establish denial its chief sacrament.

But you know, some years break the rules. And 2020, with the attempts to destroy our democracy and a gosh-darn global pandemic upon us, many of us not able to see our family members because that is — no hyperbole, literally life-threatening — maybe it’s time to sort through the chaos and find the good points and lift them up in thankfulness.

So, I’m doing some of that this week.

It’s too risky for my mother to spend Thanksgiving with us … but I’m so thankful my mother is alive and well.

I can’t get together with my BFF to make tamales … but we might try doing a “Zoom Tamalada.”

We can’t do any Black Friday shopping … ha, ha, ha, I always avoided that anyways!

There is so much to be thankful for. This is not like the Thanksgivings my older relatives remember, during the war, when sugar and flour were rationed. (Heck, we can even get toilet paper again!) And I am looking forward to future years when at the Thanksgiving table, we can say, “We are thankful … that it’s not 2020!”

(I am thankful for a … perhaps twisted … sense of humor.)

And I am so profoundly thankful for this church. If the world had to go through this past year, I’m so glad I got to go through it with YOU.