Dear Faith Family,

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day! In modern history, this is a day set aside to feast with family and friends to celebrate another year of life together. Sadly, many of us do not feel much like feasting—or are actually unable to so! 2020 has been a year where we feel more like we are drowning in misfortune than riding the wave of abundance. Echoing that sentiment, the headmaster of the twin’s school recently described 2020 as a chaotic sea of anger, uncertainty, bitterness, and despair. And many of us can attest to the accuracy of this description of 2020’s voyage.

Over the year, we have come to acknowledge that traversing such seas is daunting and requires no small measure of courage and strength, as well as inlets of rest. We cannot live in chaos without reprieve. And while it may seem counterintuitive, the harbors that offer us restorative peace we need are isles of thanksgiving.

These ports of thankfulness pepper the map of our often lamentable odyssey, ensuring that we ‘lack in nothing’ (James 1:2-4). For it is in giving thanks that the water filling our hull is poured back into the churning sea, our provisions re-stalked, and our sails battered by the tempest repaired, ready to be filled with the spirit as we continue our crossing.

So, while 2020 has truly been a year on turbulent waters, let us today, and often along our pilgrimage, dock on an isle of thanksgiving together, wherever we may be. We’ll do so through this prayer adapted from The Book of Common Prayer. Pray with your faith family today as they pray for you…

Accept, O Father, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, for our family of faith, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks and relationships which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
We thank you for strength to endure and compassion in struggle and for hope that imprisons our everyday.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Love you, faith family! God bless.