Giving Thanks

 

I was driving home from work after 11pm last night, and I listen to Charlie Kirk on talk radio on the way home. He is young, smart, and articulate, and not at all indefinite in his opinions.

 

Today is Thanksgiving, and last night Kirk reminded us of this, that we have so much to be thankful for, and that is right. He alluded to Dennis Prager’s sharp insight that unless one is grateful, one cannot be thankful or be happy.

 

Evil people are not grateful, so they are not thankful, and are so unhappy and selfless that they become addicted to being unhappy, and making others unhappy by producing needless suffering in a world already damaged and hurt by human wickedness.

 

I was reading the StarTribune newspaper this morning, and weather report Paul Douglas made a similar point. Let me quote him from the paper of today (11/28/24): “ . . . It’s probably human nature to complain about what we don’t have, but starting and ending every day with a little gratitude for what we do have is a healing revelation.”

 

Not bad for a weatherman.

 

I agree with him that it is human nature to complain, and to be grateful is a learned behavior, especially if one starts and ends each day with a little gratitude. The learned behavior of being grateful daily can become second nature for anyone that tries to be grateful all the time. This is not to minimize people’s real problems, loss, suffering, exploitation or being hit by malevolence.

 

Still, Kirk in his show pointed out that God is angry if we grumble and complain too much or without context. Amen.

 

Now here is where Kirk made a point that makes me uneasy. He said something like if we are not humble we will not be grateful, that we should thank God in a mode of humility.

 

I think we should always be a bit humble and courteous when conversing with God, but, if we follow a good deity religiously, we are her or his friend, and as friends, God is not insulted or offended if we are justly proud of what we have achieved, as long as that pride is not overweening, and are not conspiring to compete with, or overthrow the deity.

 

Kirk is a born-again Christian, and too many Christians today, now that Christianity seems suddenly ascendant again, insist that the pious believer must almost abjectly bow before Christ or God, if one is an authentic believer.

 

I believe Jesus and all the good deities are proud individualists, so they want us to be proud individualists too.

 

If Christians like Kirk want to be self-effacing and downgrade their worth, while praying to Jesus or another deity, that is fine, and their business, but I do not believe that is how I need to talk to Jesus or any good deity, nor that they demand that I humble myself excessively to please them.

 

They are my bosses and I love them dearly, but we are friends, so there is some equality among friends.

 

I like and admire Kirk and stronger, monotheistic Christians than I am, and I consider them to be friends, and fellow conservatives, but we do not completely agree on this issue of pride, and how it influences how we interact with good deities.