We're Never Too Thankful for Thanksgiving

Finding personal meaning in Thanksgiving is harder than you might expect when you’re accustomed to giving thanks for all your blessings every day of the year. I’ve tried hard to do that for a few years now, and the improvements I’ve made in my prayer life thanks to SPIRITUS have helped me to be more thankful than ever this year. Why do I need a holiday to remind me to count my blessings when I can’t think of anything I take for granted in a typical day?

The easiest way to start formulating an answer to this question is to remember that nobody is perfect. No matter how far I advance in my relationship with God, I’ll always be a sinner with improvements to make. Knowing that, I can be thankful anew each day for every improvement I’ve made recently and for my awareness of all the improvements I still need to make.

One of my biggest ongoing challenges this year has been finding a balance between complacency and scrupulosity. As I grow accustomed to the routine of our retreats and other youth ministry work, it becomes harder to motivate myself to give my best effort daily because I don’t want to overwork myself beyond what God is calling me to do. I’ve also had this same kind of struggle lately with my prayer life and SPIRITUS community life.

I often find myself wanting to draw a definite line between relying too much on God to work through me and pushing myself out of my comfort zone too much. I want to see that line and walk along it for as long as possible. By God’s grace, I recognize that even if I could see this line, it’s never a straight line. Staying within the range of virtue between complacency and scrupulosity requires frequent adjustments in one’s prayer life and other daily practices. If it didn’t, we could become complacent on the road to holiness, and that complacency would weaken our relationship with God.

Thank you, God, for the grace to know what I must do to serve You better. Help me to express my gratitude by acting on the wisdom You have given me.