“Bless the Lord O my soul. . . and forget not all His benefits.” Psalm 103

“Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” Lou Gehrig

It is Thanksgiving week.  Not everywhere.  Only in the U.S.  I used to get a kick out of it—and was sometimes slightly annoyed—when parishioners thought that Thanksgiving was a world-wide church holiday and insisted that it be observed as such.

The fact of the matter is that Thanksgiving is only celebrated in the U.S., and wasn’t even an official national holiday until 1863 in observation of Union military victories over the confederacy.  Take that pilgrims!

As  kid our family didn’t really do much celebrating on Thanksgiving, cuz it was deer hunting season.  We’d spend all day out in the woods, and then come home after dark to a turkey dinner.  After eating it we’d quickly fall asleep.  So much for a day spent with family, friends or football. 

Nonetheless the idea of Thanksgiving is a very good one.  It is good to give thanks for all that God has given to us.  That’s easy when living in abundance, or when having been delivered from some type of disaster.  But what about when life has dealt us a bad hand?  Like it did to Lou Gehrig.

Lou Gehrig was one of the best baseball players ever to grace the game.  He was nicknamed “The Iron Horse” because of his durability in playing day in and day out. He played seventeen seasons from 1923-1939 for the New York Yankees. He won numerous awards.  But then tragedy struck.  At the age of 36 Lou Gehrig developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative neuro-muscular disease.  It is better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Two weeks after his forced retirement due to this disease he gave a very memorable speech that is called “The Luckiest Man” speech.  Here is part of what he said:

“Fans, for the past two weeks you’ve been reading about a bad break.  Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the faced of the earth.  When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies—that’s something.  When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter—that’s something. When you hae a father and a mother who work all their lies so you can have an education and build your body–it’s a blessing.  When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed—that’s the finest I know.  So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.”

Lou Gehrig would die a short two years later at the age of 38. I wonder what he packed into those last two years of his life. Reading between the lines I’m certain of two things:  he was surrounded by love and therefore embraced each and every one of those days, living with gratitude.

Lately I’ve been living with a great deal of gratitude. I’ve celebrated a birthday, seen moose on my morning walks, went to The North Pole, an old-time amusement park, with my family and grandkids, and don’t have a degenerative and fatal disease.  SO much to be giving thanks for!  I consider myself the luckiest—or blessed—man on the face of the earth.  “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

What about you?  What are you thankful for?

How lucky—or blessed—do you consider yourself to be. And why?

How can you celebrate Thanks Giving, everywhere and always?