It is axiomatic to say that we should be thankful every day, yet singling out a day of thanksgiving every year is not bad policy. I want to share two things I am especially thankful to, and for.
1. God
The one thing I am most thankful for, and all of us should be, is something we absolutely, positively do not deserve in the least—the grace and mercy of an Almighty, eternal God. Folks, just look at the incredibly beautiful creation He has blessed us with. Look at the mountains, the seas, the lakes, rivers, sun, moon, and stars, the flora and fauna—all the inexhaustible exquisiteness of this earth. Even deserts have a symmetry and sublime splendor that no human tongue can describe. God has given us an overabundance of everything we need to live on this planet. And have we deserved such mercy?
The world's problems are not caused by God, who has given us such magnificence. The world's mess is being perpetrated by humans who have not been thankful, who have not appreciated, who have not humbled themselves, who have spit in the face of this merciful God, who has given us so much. Our catastrophes are not instigated by God and His blessings, but by our own stupid and vile choices. And I blame myself as much as anyone. If I had a dime for every idiotic choice I've made, for every mistake I've made because I didn't listen to God, for every sin I've committed, I could buy out Elon Musk. So, yeah, I am VERY thankful to God, who has blessed this earth and me with a mercy that I wholly undeserve, especially for the forgiveness He offers. It's really incredible if you think about it straight.
And make no mistake, He created this existence. One human cell, the simplest element in our bodies, is infinitely more complicated than any vehicle Mr. Musk will ever send to Mars. Yet, according to atheism, the Mars machine will be constructed by wonderful human intelligence, but the vastly superior human cell happened purely by chance. I find that utterly ridiculous. This is not an intelligence problem, folks. Many non-believers have high intelligence. It's a wisdom and heart problem, a pride problem that refuses to humble itself before a greater Knowledge and Intelligence than its own. I'm thankful, and I hope I have the wisdom to prostrate myself before that Superior Being.
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2. America
I'm also thankful for America, though honestly, more for the America I grew up in than its current condition. Sadly, the country isn't what it was; we aren't the same people. We haven't progressed in the direction the God of mercy would have us go. We allow our babies to be murdered, we tolerate men claiming to be women, we teach children to play with themselves, we condone every kind of vile, filthy perversity man can dream of…no, we aren't the same people we were when I was a child. And this has happened because too many Americans ignored the first point of this essay.
If there is no God to be thankful to, then there is no afterlife, no heaven to be gained, no hell to be avoided, so let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Like the little dog Rover, we'll be dead all over. And we'll all be in the same location that Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Confucius, Buddha, and every other human who has ever lived and is now dead are—we'll be in eternal nothingness, with no consciousness, no feeling, no thought, no nothing. And we won't care about anything, including what people who are still alive think of us. Given atheism, do you think Hitler cares, right now, what we think of him? So, yeah, live it up, get all the gusto you can right now because you only go around once in life. Have as selfish, as pleasure-oriented an existence as you can. Why concern yourself about duty, honor, integrity, nobility, virtue—we'll all be dead in a few years, and won't give one whit about any of them.
That isn't the America I grew up in. I remember when "truth, justice, and the American way" was the motto of one of our great heroes. I had teachers who taught me not only what to know, but how to live. But then, we made the worst mistake this country ever made—we gave the education system over to the people who believe the two paragraphs directly above this one, not my first point. And for at least two generations, we have raised a nation full of godless, licentious, totally selfish, and self-centered narcissists who care about nothing but themselves and fulfilling their own gratification and self-aggrandizement. And the longer we follow this path, the more perverse and wretched our country becomes.
James Madison, George Washington, Noah Webster, and Thomas Jefferson would vomit on just about every member of our Congress now, not to mention the people in the executive and judicial branches, as well as the bureaucracy. Thinking of the Democratic Party and some of the things it does and believes is probably the most effective emetic a decent person could take. And the Republicans will only make you barf slower.
I'm thankful for the America I grew up in. Now, truly, America still has some great people in it, people who believe, along with me, point number one above. We're not finished yet, and maybe, just maybe, by the grace of that Almighty God who allowed America to exist and become the greatest country the world has ever seen, we can take the country back and return it to what it ought to be. I'm not going to live to see it, I'm too old now, and the rot is too deep. But I won't quit praying about it, either.
We still have a God and a country to be thankful for—every day.
My substacks are a little unique. Not just current events, but history, our Founding Fathers, what America was meant to be, and Biblical exegesis. Check them out. "Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com), and "Mark It Down! Bible Substack" (mklbibless.substack.com). Both free. Follow me on "X": @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, "Whitewater," "River Bend," "Return to River Bend," and "Allie's Dilemma," all available on Amazon.
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