Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008

I am better off than 4 years ago, and thankful for it

Thanksgiving is more than turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans, squash, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie and sparkling cider. I love those things, but Thanksgiving Day is much more.

It is really too bad that we have to set aside a special day in our year to express thanks for our blessings.

I find blessings wherever I can. I am like that little boy who dug through a huge pile of horse byproducts knowing that somewhere in the middle of all that, there had to be a pony.

Before the election, at a rally, the question was asked, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

The shouted reply was, "No!"

I am the most blessed person in our country. I have less debt than four years ago. Our monthly payments are fewer. Our primary car is only two years old. Four years ago, we were driving a six-year-old car. In the past four years, we have spent more for vacations than we ever have in our lives. My ministerial retirement fund has never lost money.

Almost three years ago, I took a physical nose dive and after five weeks of recuperation, there are no lasting effects. I have less energy than I did 40 years ago, but my health is excellent. All my doctors are "old-guy doctors." I keep hearing, "You are in good shape, for a man of your age."

Just recently I visited my trifocal doctor and we were discussing cataracts. He said (paraphrased), "Your lenses are a little cloudy, but they are in really good condition ... " Yes, he dropped his version of "for a man of your age" on me.

Some of my blessings are a result of environment. In January 1991, we moved back into the valley from northern Nevada. We have summer fruit readily available. I have not shoveled snow for 17 years.

I am blessed to live in the best country in the world. We read of turmoil all around the world, yet we don't experience that here. We are in a huge transition of government and there was no fighting or bloodshed in this revolution.

I am a Pentecostal preacher, so I must kick into character. Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet for a reason. In the middle of him complaining about what was going on around him, he wrote this absolutely positive passage in Lamentations 3:23-24, from which we get this chorus: "Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, Thy hand has provided. Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord, unto me."

I have always had what I need and have had some luxuries. I have much to be thankful for as all of us do. Happy Thanksgiving.

Oh, yeah. If you add a little chablis to the stuffing, it will season the turkey really well.

Belarmino, a Turlock resident, works at Health Services Agency and is a chaplain with the Assemblies of God Disaster Response Task Force. E-mail him at RevTonyAG@aol.com.