The Possessions I Do Not Have

Here we are in the middle of the year-end’s trifecta of big holidays. Halloween is past and now it is time for us to give appropriate gratitude at our annual observance of Thanksgiving.

So what do you have to be thankful for? We could make up some lists with headers like “Material Stuff,” “Food Stuff,” “Relationship Stuff,” “Job Stuff.” Maybe you can think of a few more.

In Kathleen Norris’s book Cloister Walk, she quotes St. Teresa of Avila praying what I consider a rather exceptional prayer of thanksgiving: “O God, I thank you for the possessions I do not have.” Now would that make a unique Thanksgiving prayer. How would it play at your table this Thanksgiving?

Before you dismiss this prayer out of hand, pause to consider its wisdom.

This profound and simple prayer raises the question: Are we blessed by possessions? Sometimes we are--but not always. Sometimes the things we own turn the tables on us and own us instead. Possessions can take control of our lives by demanding attention or repair.

Perhaps the possessions we long for are even more pernicious. They vie for precious attention that could be devoted to a loved one or to prayer. Longed-for stuff can also lead us into the valley of the shadow of greed and lust. It is best to avoid that territory if possible--and if we can, then we are blessed!

What role did possessions play in the legendary first Thanksgiving? It was possessions that bridged the cultural differences between Native Americans and those struggling settlers in Plymouth. Yet it took one more step to make complete the blessing that possessions brought at that first Thanksgiving: sharing. Together Pilgrims and Native Americans sat down at table and shared the abundance of their harvest.

In a very real sense, they shared Eucharist; the word itself is Greek for thanksgiving. How sad that this founding ceremony and the wonderful blessings it contained were later obscured by the desires, the lust, and the greed exhibited in Manifest Destiny.

Perhaps this Thanksgiving we can thank God that we don’t have to contend with the possessions that we do not have, and maybe we can make a more concerted effort to share the ones we have. Possessions are not in and of themselves blessings. Rather what we do with them determines that.

Joel t