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Thanksgiving seems to be the proverbial red-headed step child of holidays. It gets no love compared to the rest.

I recently found this 50th anniversary release of the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It got me thinking that there’s really not a lot of Thanksgiving music. At least not nearly as much as Christmas music. Even Halloween has lots of songs that have a spooky vibe.

Sure, there are the old bringing in the harvest type of hymns. There are songs about giving thanks. But as far as I know there aren’t really many songs about Thanksgiving Day.

Lately, it seems that we skip right from Halloween to Christmas. I even see stores with Christmas decorations and ornaments and the like even before Halloween. It’s like Thanksgiving doesn’t exist in the retail world except as the day before Black Friday when everything’s 75% off.

There really needs to be music suitable for gorging on turkey and dressing. I want a station dedicated exclusively to Thanksgiving the way there are so many that are Christmas all year round.

That’s probably as unrealistic as me expecting to exercise moderation on Thanksgiving Day, but one can dream. At least give the Thanksgiving holiday some love.

I thought this was humorous and insightful. It was actually penned by Rich Mullins. Yes, that Rich Mullins who wrote and sang all those great songs back in the day.

Ultimately, the goal is not happiness but holiness, which leads to joy. And joy is better than happiness, because anyone can have joy at any time while happiness depends on what happens.

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“1. Forget about finding happiness. Happiness is not worthy of your search.

2. Bake a cake – a really rich cake, preferably from scratch and especially if you are an inexperienced baker or a tested, tried, & notoriously awful cook. The value is in the baking more than in the cake.

3. Call up some enemy of yours and invite that enemy to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good you may lose an enemy and gain a friend. If the cake is bad, at least vengeance is sweet.

4. If you can’t think of a single enemy, then call up a friend. Invite your friend over to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good the favor may be returned. If the cake is awful your friend may go buy one from a bakery for you. If you are without any enemies or friends, take your cake to an old folks’ home. Eat it with them! If the cake is good you will no longer be without friends. If the cake is terrible you will no longer be without enemies.

Finding a friend, making an enemy – now those are things worth pursuing. Happiness may come tagged on – but even if it doesn’t, at least you will have done something and established some relationships.

5. Memorize Isaiah 40 or the first Psalm or Psalm 91. Read the closing chapters of the Book of Job. Meditate on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). Write out one of the Prison Epistles (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Collosians) and send them to some other unhappy person.

All of this may not make you happy but it will tell you how to be holy. Once you tie that knot you may find yourself in a position to be made happy.

6. Work hard. Clean something. Find new and more space-efficient ways of folding your clothes. Rake someone else’s yard for them. If you are unhappy maybe you can help someone else be less so.

7. Go back to the third chapter of Lamentations and then repeat after me:

‘It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence
For the Lord has laid it on him.’

8. Reread the 23rd Psalm and remember that if the Lord is your shepherd, then you are in a lush pasture. You are by a still stream. If it seems otherwise to you, it may be because you would rather be happy than be God’s. If this is so, then you have more reason to be happy than anyone. God has chosen you – ungrateful, decadent you – and being His is a joy and a happiness that goes beyond anything else you may seek, and in your folly settle for. God will (in His mercy) make you discontent with anything less than Him.

So we have only one step left…

9. Rejoice.”

That is the essence of the gospel. God became a man and lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s law that I could never hope to attain to. He took the death that I deserved because of my sins.

I’m thankful that God didn’t wait for me to figure out a way to get to Him, but instead came to me and found me and saved me.

It all boils down to the fact that salvation is from God and of God from start to finish. If I boast, it’s not because I was smart enough or clever enough or good enough but that God is able.

So I’m on another vacation, this time with my sister and her family. The destination for this vacation is Gatlinburg, a very familiar spot for me. My family and I have been going there for vacations since I was a wee little lad back in the 1800s.

Normally, I have a checklist of all the places and activities that I need to mark off to qualify the trip as a success. Pancake Pantry? Check. The Village? Check. Ober Gatlinburg? Check.

That is just a sampling of my checklist.

But this year I decided that I want to be with my family more than I want to check stuff off a list. I want to be in the moment and make as many memories as I can instead of merely visiting places.

Not that seeing a lot of different places is bad, but my expectations are different. I’m here to experience all that God has for me, hopefully without looking ahead to the next place or event or looking back to what I may or may not have missed.

So far, so good.

I’m not much for dancing with my two left feet, but i’d be down with this.

Sometimes, there needs to be a spontaneous break into song and dance, like one of those flash mob things. I could definitely use more of those in my life.

“His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit).

I visited the North Wind Manor today since I was off for vacation. It’s part of something called The Rabbit Room, a collective of artists who generously share a space for people to gather and drink coffee and sit and talk and dream and pray and write. There’s probably a lot more to it, but that’s what I’ve gathered so far.

My first impression when I arrived was that I want to live in a place like that one day. It seems like a kind of haven from the crazy world we live in where I can feel the stress melting away.

It reminded me of that line from The Hobbit about the house in Rivendell where the characters go when they’re in need of some rest and relaxation. It’s a house of healing for those who are weary in body and spirit and soul.

That’s the vibe I got from this place. It’s essentially sitting in the middle of a suburb in Antioch. It’s like you go down a short driveway and enter a whole other world, like stepping into the world of Middle Earth or Narnia.

I definitely need to go back sooner rather than later and maybe take a book to read while I’m sipping on my coffee.

For some random reason, I felt the urge to listen to some Billy Joel music while I was at work today. It started with the song Vienna from the album The Stranger and went from there. I found one song deeply moving.

I later learned that Billy Joel wrote this song to his then 7 year old daughter. It’s one of those rare songs where the lyrics and melody are perfect. If you have kids (or if you were a kid once and had good parents), you will appreciate this:

“Goodnight my angel, time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you’ve been asking me
I think you know what I’ve been trying to say
I promised I would never leave you
Then you should always know
Wherever you may go, no matter where you are
I never will be far away

Goodnight my angel, now it’s time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay
And like a boat out on the ocean
I’m rocking you to sleep
The water’s dark and deep, inside this ancient heart
You’ll always be a part of me

Goodnight my angel, now it’s time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry, and if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart there will always be a part of me
Someday we’ll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die
That’s how you and I will be” (Billy Joel).

You’ve probably heard this before, but being called a sheep isn’t necessarily a compliment. It’s not because we are so cute and cuddly that we are called sheep. It’s not because we are so lovable.

Sheep are dumb. Sheep are helpless. Sheep need constant attention and care to avoid wandering off, falling into rivers and drowning, getting attacked by predators . . . the list goes on and on.

The point of the Bible calling us sheep isn’t that we’re so dumb, but rather that we have a loving Shepherd. One of the metaphors Jesus used most was calling Himself the Good Shepherd who loves His sheep. That’s us.

One of my favorite parables tells of how the Shepherd leaves the 99 and goes after the one who is lost. In my mind, I’m thinking that 99% is a really good retention rate. I’m willing to let that one go and write off the loss. But not Jesus.

Not only did He go after the one, but He laid down His life for the one. I do think that if there had been just one lost person in all of history, Jesus would have still gone to the cross for that one. He would have endured it all for the one.

When you feel helpless and dumb like one of those sheep, remember that Jesus left the 99 to find you. He left the 99 to find me. He didn’t stop until we were a part of the flock and with the Shepherd.

I also love how the mark of a true Shepherd is how the sheep know His voice and follow Him. That’s what happens when you’re the one who was lost and is now found. It’s what happens when you spend time with the Shepherd learning to recognize the cadences and patterns of His voice in reading the words that He left for us.

Jesus left the 99 for you and for me.

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, The Message).

The key to not giving up is to remember that what’s unseen is what matters, and what matters will last forever. All these hardships and struggles and suffering and pain have an expiration date. Some will end during your life time. Some will end when you die. But they all will end.

All that truly matters is eternal. Things like joy and hope and peace and love have no expiration date. When you hoped in Christ, those were yours forever. When you die, you take them with you.

All those things we obsess over will fade and decay. Things like money will rot and rust. Gold in heaven is what they use to pave the streets. The true currency of heaven is agape love.

So remember that when you’re tempted to quit. Everything you’re facing that brings you down and burdens you has already been overcome by the cross of Christ. The Bible calls them a light and momentary affliction compared to the eternal joy that’s coming. Without the perspective of eternity, those afflictions seem impossible and insurmountable. But in light of heaven, they don’t. In fact, in heaven you won’t remember any of them.

What you will remember is how Jesus led you all the way from start to finish. You will remember the joy that came in the midst of suffering, the peace that came in the midst of pain, and the love that overcame every obstacle.