The Foolishness of Paragraphs that are Better as One Word

The Foolishness of Paragraphs that are Better as One Word

The beginning of this Thanksgiving week finds us remembering Kevin Gilbert, who's birthday was today. I'm not one to jump on the dead hero bandwagon, but I'll recognize the influence Gilbert had on my musical landscape. Not only did he write Sharyl Crow's "All I Wanna Do," he produced the first two Spock's Beard albums, and was a major influence on Neal Morse and Nick D'Virgilio. He also inspired the songs "The Great Nothing" by Spock's Beard and "I Was Not Ready for You" by Mike Keneally. For a guy who wrote sarcastic folk-pop and who got his break engineering sessions for Michael Jackson and Madonna, Gilbert really did set the stage for a large segment of the nineties prog rock revival. Before his death, he was in line to replace Phil Collins in Genesis, and was supposed to produce what became Dream Theater's Falling Into Infinity album. I've been enjoying his album Thud for the last week. Pretty sad guy, but he turned a great rhyme. We'll be singing nah, nah, nah when we all fall down...

The Cubs are about to sign Alfonso Soriano to an eight year, gazillion dollar contract. That's pretty cool, except that it appears Juan Pierre won't be coming back, leaving us with a leadoff man who hit 40 homers last year. This guy has to bat down in the lineup if he's gonna do us any good. I'm still waiting to see how Jim Hendry plans on fixing the pitching problem.

I was contemplating the existence of Eskimos last night. I live in Mississippi and get cranky when the temperature drops below 40. It boggles my mind that people live in Alaska. So I wonder, how did Eskimos and other northern folk ever learn to survive up there? These people make houses out of snow. That is absolutely amazing. Crazy, but amazing nonetheless.

So this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that I don't live in a house made out of snow, and that it is only 38 degrees outside, instead of 60 below. I'm trying to be mindful of the many blessings of modern America, and not be an ungrateful materialist. I've constantly been reminded this year that very few people in the history of the world have the wealth, convenience, and opportunity that I do. The overwhelming majority of people in the world live in extreme poverty (Why are little ones born only to suffer, for the want of immunity or a bowl of rice?)

I'm also reminded of the friends I have who are spending Thanksgiving on the mission field in China, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Nigeria without all the American conveniences we take for granted. Let's not pull any punches, it's idolatrous to be thankful for "blessings" in the abstract. Our treasure is Christ, and our God is the one worthy of thanksgiving:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

"Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content."

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ"

(Case in point, I'm thankful for www.crosswalk.com, the Bible online in every modern English translation. People have died to have the Bible in their language, and so many people don't have it. I can search the whole thing on the net.)