Thanksgiving Prayer 2009

Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for every beat of my heart,
And for the hope of new life with you
when you let it stop.

Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for my soul that will never die,
that will return to you when my body
returns to dust.

Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for planet Earth, the only safe place
for me in the universe.

Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good to me.
Thank you for family who love me,
who encircle, protect , and sustain me;
Thank you for loving friends, who care
and uplift prayers on my behalf;
And thank you for all people, that I may
love them for you.

Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
Thank you, thank you, Jesus;
You're so good, so good to me.

Every human being has an almost-irrepressible trait of self-pride in what he/she is or has achieved in life. Frank Sinatra expressed this well in his popular and powerful hit song, "I Did It My Way". Heroic as the lyric seems, it is misguided and the greatest of all sins of mankind---taking credit for oneself in what God has made possible, allowed and assisted one to do.

Pride stands like an impenetrable wall between man and his Maker. How can most humans ignore the God that created them? How can sincere Christians, incredibly fortunate to have received and responded to the revealing truth, claim credit for any good thing they has received? If we conquer, or if we struggle, it is because of what God has set before us. We must learn humility, and it must be absolute and abject.