Thanksgiving and Ruts

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD… — To give thanks to the name of the LORD.” Psalm 122:1, 4b (NASB)Have you ever been a rut and didn’t know it? Maybe you were working, working, working and someone had to come along and tell you, “You need to slow down; you need to take a break”. Or maybe when you were so busy you forgot to eat and someone had to remind you. It is amazing how many ruts there are and how when you are in one you often don’t even know it until someone comes along and hollers at you down in your rut.Maybe we should all get together and play, “Name that Rut.” I have been in both of the ones mentioned above, as well as in the rut of self-pity, greed , negativity, business (wait I am still in that one), over-commitment, being out of shape, joylessness, stubbornness, overestimating my importance, procrastination, …. Feel free to kick in and participate anytime with some of your own __________________________________________________ .Ruts trap us, they lock in our wheels, and they paralyze our minds to the point of unawareness. It is really easy to get into a rut but it is difficult to get out of one, especially when you have been in one for a while. It is possible to get in such a deep rut that that we can’t see anything else, we think it’s normal when it is not. If we let it, a rut will keep us until the day we die, it will have us circling, and circling, and circling, only a little deeper each time around. That’s why sometimes the only way out of a rut is if someone cares enough to shout down into it, cause to us stop, and give us a hand to pull us out – “I was glad when they said to me, ...”Why had that person stopped going up to God’s house – stopped coming into God’s presence, stopped worshipping God? How did s/he get into a rut where thanking God was no longer important, much less something primary? Maybe “praying for the peace of Jerusalem” seemed like a joke, much like praying for peace and politics can seem like a joke today? Maybe s/he had decided that there were already too many hypocrites going to God’s house? Maybe s/he wasn’t all that convinced anymore that there even is a God? Maybe s/he was simply stuck in some other rut where there was no time, energy, or sense of importance for spiritual things? We don’t know. But we do know that whatever the rut was that person was glad that someone cared enough to both holler and reach down into that rut. “Stop and come with us, to worship, to pray, to give thanks,” was the invitation.This Thanksgiving be the one who invites all the others who have gathered to go before God to acknowledge him, to praise him, and to give him thanks. Be the one who won’t let it be just an ordinary holiday circling in a godless rut of family, friends, food, fun, and football. "Let us go to the house of the LORD. … — To give thanks to the name of the LORD,” because this is where all giving of thanks should begin.This Thanksgiving lets bow before God who in is love, mercy, and grace hollered and reached down into the inescapable rut of our sinfulness, confirmed by human history, and has invited us through his Son Jesus Christ, to come into his house, and to give thanks.Have a blessed Thanksgiving, Pastor Hans