Dare We Say, Thanks for Nothing?
In regard to the thanks in Thanksgiving Day: I would be quite willing/happy to consistently sincerely thank God with every meal, if everyone on Earth and not just a portion of the planets populace had enough clean, safe drinking water and nutritional food to maintain a normal, healthy daily life. And I genuinely would be pray-fully thankful if every couples child would survive their serious illness rather than just a small portion of such sick children.
[On the other hand, what makes so many of us believe that collective humanity should be able to enjoy the pleasures of free will, but cry out for and expect divine mercy and rescue when our free will ruins our figurative good day i.e. that we should have our cake and eat it, too?]
I realize its still socially awkward to question one of historical humanitys largest and most sacrosanct institutions prayer, and perhaps even saying heartfelt thanks to an omnipotent/omniscient deity. But I, a big fan of Christs unmistakable miracles and fundamental message, know Im far from being alone in having a problem with thanking God for relative trivialities, such as a big-money-making professional sports-teams win, especially with hunger regularly happening internationally.
Lastly, is it just me, or is there some truly unfortunate, bitter irony in holding faith and hope in prayer when unanswered prayer results in an increase in skeptical atheism and/or agnosticism? Nevertheless, the following poem is for the growing number of people for whom theres nothing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day, or any other day of the year.
.
[i]Just pass me the holiday turkey, peas
and the delicious stuffing flanked
by buttered potatoes with gravy
since Ive said grace with plenty ease
for the good food received Ive thanked
my Maker whos found me worthy.
It seems that unlike the many of those
in the unlucky Third World nation
Ive been found by God deserving
to not have to endure the awful woes
and the stomach wrenching starvation
suffered by them with no dinner serving.
Therefor hand over to me the corn
the cranberry sauce, fresh baked bread
since for my grub Ive praised the Lord
yet I need not hear about those born
whose meal Ive been granted instead
as they receive naught of the grand hoard.[/i]
[On the other hand, what makes so many of us believe that collective humanity should be able to enjoy the pleasures of free will, but cry out for and expect divine mercy and rescue when our free will ruins our figurative good day i.e. that we should have our cake and eat it, too?]
I realize its still socially awkward to question one of historical humanitys largest and most sacrosanct institutions prayer, and perhaps even saying heartfelt thanks to an omnipotent/omniscient deity. But I, a big fan of Christs unmistakable miracles and fundamental message, know Im far from being alone in having a problem with thanking God for relative trivialities, such as a big-money-making professional sports-teams win, especially with hunger regularly happening internationally.
Lastly, is it just me, or is there some truly unfortunate, bitter irony in holding faith and hope in prayer when unanswered prayer results in an increase in skeptical atheism and/or agnosticism? Nevertheless, the following poem is for the growing number of people for whom theres nothing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day, or any other day of the year.
.
[i]Just pass me the holiday turkey, peas
and the delicious stuffing flanked
by buttered potatoes with gravy
since Ive said grace with plenty ease
for the good food received Ive thanked
my Maker whos found me worthy.
It seems that unlike the many of those
in the unlucky Third World nation
Ive been found by God deserving
to not have to endure the awful woes
and the stomach wrenching starvation
suffered by them with no dinner serving.
Therefor hand over to me the corn
the cranberry sauce, fresh baked bread
since for my grub Ive praised the Lord
yet I need not hear about those born
whose meal Ive been granted instead
as they receive naught of the grand hoard.[/i]
Comments (13)
Sure, if you have nothing. But it's mostly not the people with nothing saying such things.
What should we be thankful for? Getting to gain!
I figure we give people until 2 or 3 in the afternoon to finish gorging themselves on the cornucopia provided by Monsanto and co. and then it's time for shopping! Remember to bring the pepper spray in case someone tries to take the last TV or Xbox you want. :rofl:
Yes, its just you. And @Count Timothy von Icarus apparently.
There will be more of us once we unveil the new Thanksgaining mascot, Pizza the Hutt. People will drop their dry turkey in no time.
I'm sure that's true. I also neglected to mention every Native American ever.
It's not surprising that there are a lot of trivial prayers sent heavenward on behalf of one's lottery ticket, the home team, or the potentially great date with so and so. God is supposed to have his eye on the sparrow, and surely this lottery ticket is more important than some bird. So, God, how about a big win here?
Following the Lord's Prayer formula, the basics of prayer are:
a) acknowledgement of the Holy (hallowed be your name)
b) acknowledgement of God's rule (thy will be done)
c) simple requests (our daily bread)
d) confession (forgive us our sins...)
e) a plea to be spared the great test (lead us not into temptation)
f) acknowledgement of the Holy (for the kingdom, the power...)
The Lord's Prayer isn't a rigid model that has to be followed, but it does suggest how to pray to God, and it isn't all "I need this", "give me that", "make that team lose and mine win" etc.
Based on my very close relationship with God, and hints I've picked up from high ranking personnel up there, God doesn't give a rat's ass about who wins the big game, or whether your lottery ticket will pay off.
Those who have almost everything usually think they deserve better.
My only prayer is 'Thanks for this day Lord'. Every night.
The human condition in a square bracket. We have caused most of our own misery - not entirely unknowingly, because there was always at least one 'enemy of the people' who warned us and was overruled for all the wrong reasons.
Quoting unenlightened
The whole point of institutional religion.
How do you know the prayer was unanswered as opposed to the answer having been no?
As to the OP, you should be thankful for nothing to the extent that what you haven't received is part of your bounty as well.
:100:
:fire:
"As to the OP.........what you haven't received is part of your bounty as well."
Hard to deny, and so general and sweeping as to cover all in between the metaphorical glass full and the glass empty. But no proof of or disproof of or useful comment on the two (glasses)/extremes of religious belief and disbelief in religion.
And hence, dare we say "Thanks for nothing" and be saying anything meaningful ( in this OP's sense) without the acceptance of our addressing a "higher power".
Probably not. Religious nuances ( or nuances derived from religious belief) are hard to remove from our language without stripping it of much sense/ understandability.
a tuppenny smile