I Am Thankful ... Yet

After the turkey, or tofurkey, or even the turducken ... plus pies, dessert, cranberry sauced or freshly packed and frozen, I am grateful for my Church. I have gratitude for the Church, that began at Pentecost, or perhaps at the moment that Jesus hung on the cross. I am grateful for the many reasons that I remain in the Church. Despite separation from my family in South Africa as well as from my wife. My family may not have given me Christ, but they have pointed me to Him in more ways than they can imagine.

I am grateful to so many friends this Thanskgiving 2009 for having invited me to their homes and tables. I apologize I could not accept all the generous and very kind invitations. I wish to thank Robert Croslin and his Mom, Aurelia and similarly Mark Heazlitt and his mom, in this respect. But I celebrate all their offers full of generosity and caring ... from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. I ate very well yesterday, but I remembered to eat healthy at the same time. The wonderful dessert I enjoyed last night may be used as evidence against the claim I just made!

Getting more serious for just a minute or two ... Did you ever thank family members who stole your property, I mean real estate - that real property? I have been thanking my older brother and his family for the last 2-3 years for just that. They probably thought someone who has gone to America does not need South African Rands and property. But everone needs a "home" even if both parents have passed away onward to His dispensation.

God bless my family, and help me keep my prayerful promise to forgive some of them ... and to forget too. After all, I still own three small properties ("flats" or, woonstele in Afrikaans) in Pretoria, where the Union Buildings (and the Foreign Ministry plus part time office of the President are located). My flats are right opposite the wonderful and tropical Union Buildings Garden, in which one encounters Jan Christiaan Smuts and former Boer General and Premier, Gen, Hertzog. In statuesque form, that is. One of my addresses (there is a tenant in this flat right now) is Church Street, Pretoria!

I am grateful for my family and wife for allowing me to test my faith in Jesus Christ and still maintain my sanity and genuineness for Christian hope, forgiveness and predestination. Everything in my past and present (and the solid future) point to Christ Jesus. Nothing I heard from family, the pundits, politicians and gurus of South Africa, Trinidad and India, could assuage the desires and meaninglessness I encountered before and since apartheid. I had a great childhood - thanks to my wonderful grandparents and a self-sacrificing Mom - but as soon as I had senses to perceive how the former (pre-Mandela) government discriminated aginst people of color, I became an angry andunChristian political activist. I was grateful for my religious mentors who urged me to get out of politics and student protests that I had zealously experienced at college in Durban.

Today, despite my string of US degrees, I have humbled myself to study at US seminaries (part time). It is not a big deal, but I have been taught by a few professors who have adequate (masters degrees, a notch lower than my) academic and worldly credentials. Praise Christ Jesus that with one exception in almost six seminary classes, my professors had/have expertise and Christ-like love, charity and wisdom. Alelujah!

I am grateful for the alienation I suffered, and the maninglessness, only because I see what Jesus had done for me since 1990, when I joined Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in the metroplitan Washington, DC area. I am grateful to the South African (AME) pastor who baptised me, Rev. Dr. M. Mahlangu-Ngcobo. I am grateful to Pastors Jeff Hartman and Jim Foreman who baptised me again at Perry Hall Baptist Church (Baltimore). I am grateful to my daughters and friends - especially David Singh, Dr. Jules Kouatchou, Sister Irma Mensah, and Grady H. Dorsett - for attending one more of my sacraments (and dipping!) I thank God for teaching me that baptism is not a ticket to heaven; that it is only an outward sign that I have begun an inward journey of accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord, Savior, the Way, the Truth and Life! It represents a beginning of my gratitude to Him for everything, even my pain, suffering, humiliation as well as encouragement and successes. It is my journey in imitation of Paul, the writer of so many joyful and worshipful epistles of the New Testament. It is an amazing possibility and privilege to taste some of the pain and humiliation at the hands of humans (including family) that Jesus Christ Himself experienced. If I can smile and love and thank God for these opportunities - daily - I know I am living as a Christian, picking up my cross daily, and following follow Him. Going to heaven is beside the point.

So, happy thanksgiving everyday. May the Peace of Christ be evident in your life, mind and tongue. May His assurances abide always like a warm glow in your heart.

Shalom and Amen!