“The more we give thanks, the more we give thanks…”

This is an expression that has resonated with me for some years now. Time and time again, I find that the more I am able to slow down and be genuinely thankful for the blessings of life, the more that I am able to find…more blessings in life.”

The *act* of Thanksgiving itself leads to more thanksgiving.

Sunday we will start two straight “Sundays of Thanks” at Kessler Park. For the next two Sundays, we will focus on gratitude in our lives, gratitude for our lives, and gratitude to God.

When I am giving thanks, I find that I try to start with the obvious, huge things. For example, about this time of year, I try to be thankful for central heat and air. I try to remember that having a warm home is a genuine blessing. Not everybody has it.

And so, when we can become more deeply grateful for our blessings, we can also find a renewed desire to share those blessings with others.

Take those neighbors without a home, for example. Our friends over at Oak Lawn UMC have started opening their church as an emergency shelter on sub-zero nights. It’s totally against “code” for them to do so, but they’re doing it anyway, as a way of serving the homeless community in their time of need.

Our own Oscar Brown has been a contact for us with our friends over at Oak Lawn UMC. It may well be that there will be chances for you to help serve at Oak Lawn on these emergency nights. If you are interested in “paying forward” your own gratitude for shelter by volunteering there, let Oscar or I know. We’ll try to communicate the opportunities as we come to know them.

In any event, that’s just one way of how thanksgiving might turn from internal gratitude to external action.

Finally, of course, thanksgiving is an act of prayer. It’s an act of recognizing our dependence on others, and the many blessings we so often forget to name.

So, join us the next two weeks as we enter a season of Thanksgiving at Kessler Park.

Grace and Peace,

Eric Folkerth