Give Thanks for What You Have, While You Still Have It. (A Free Article)
November 27, 2008
The apostle Paul wrote these words: "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20). This is one of the most difficult commands in the Bible or any other religious book. It was written by a man who also wrote this:
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness (2 Corinthians 11:25-27).
Was he a madman? Some would say so. Was he a disciplined man? I would say so. Was he a flexible man? Most would say so.
Americans have it soft. Each generation has it softer. We have enormous wealth. We have opportunities. We have access to credit to buy almost anything our hearts' desire, and our hearts desire more things than we can comprehend.
In the New York City area, each of the items for sale has a separate computerized ID. You know: a bar code. These are called SKU's: stock keeping units. Do you know how many SKUs (size, model, brand) are estimated to be in the New York City area? Take a guess.
Take a wild guess.
Take an insane, off-the-wall, off-the shelf guess.
We don't know for sure, but one economist, Eric Beinhocker, has estimated it as ten billion (The Origin of Wealth).
That refers to products. It does not include services. Services are the bulk of the American economy.
Rich? Insanely.
Happy? Hardly.
Thankful? Barely.
In America, Thanksgiving is about stuffing: ourselves.
It's about traditional football games, whose outcomes are irrelevant to someone who did not attend either school, and which will be barely relevant in a week to those who did attend.
The problem with Thanksgiving is that the richer we are, the less thankful we are for every new blessing. I have written about this before. It has to do with marginal utility: each additional unit is worth less to us than the previous unit.
Sad to say, it is when we have things removed from us that we recognize what we have lost. The marginal utility of each item removed is higher than the one that was removed before.
If I read the economic news right, we will have a lot of things removed between now and next Thanksgiving.
Let us therefore be thankful for what we have today.