Has Greed Replaced Your Gratitude?

Advent Devotional Introduction¹

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It’s Black Friday, which means yesterday was Thanksgiving in the United States. It also means we are now officially in Advent. The Church calendar has flipped over and we are waiting earnestly for our Lord’s arrival. Last Sunday was Christ the King Sunday, which celebrates his exaltation and enthronement over the whole universe.

Thus it was fitting that we feasted yesterday. Thanksgiving is a beautiful reminder to be grateful for Christ’s coronation as king over all, and coming as it does at the end of the Church year, it caps off the year Revelation 19:9 style—with a glorious feast, ideally, surrounded by loved ones.

And on Sunday we will start again, entering Advent and turning our hearts to wait expectantly for the birth of our Lord.

But today, I want to start the Advent process of subverting expectations by discussing a topic we were all likely quite vocal about yesterday. Thankfulness.

Psalm 100:4 – 5 says:

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For Yahweh is good, and His love is eternal;
His faithfulness endures through all generations.²

As I read these words, two thoughts cross my mind. I’ll start with the more negative.

Today is Black Friday, and despite our counting our blessings yesterday and claiming contentment, many of us immediately rushed out today (perhaps merely online) to snag deals. There is no other set of days in our world so striking juxtaposed as the gratitude of Thanksgiving and the greed of Black Friday. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our gratitude could even last a weekend before “I want” and “I need” silenced it?

And I know what you might be thinking. “I’m getting these deals for others. I could care less about my own wants and needs.”

Fair. But let me share a story. I believe it was ten years ago—Black Friday of 2015. I was in Kansas City for Thanksgiving break, and after the Thanksgiving festivities, we decided (myself, my uncle, a couple cousins, and future cousin-in-law [if memory serves me]) to go to Cabella’s and wait outside all night under the promise of a $100 gift card for everyone in line. Now, I had no interest in one of these gift cards. I don’t hunt. I don’t even hike as often as I would like. But I knew someone who would love that gift card for Christmas. And as a broke college student, giving a pricey gift like that would have meant a lot (my dad needn’t have known I got it for free). But fast forward four hours and temperatures dropping below freezing (I’m a Southern California boy), and you’ll understand my disappointment when I was given a $5 gift card. It turns out—I checked the ad as soon as we got back to the house—that someone hadn’t mentioned the words “up to” as it related to the $100 gift card.

While that was a story about believing people who didn’t read an ad carefully, the fact of the matter is that discontent works similarly. We are promised so much. “If only I had that.” “If I could only get them this.” But once it’s all said and done, most of these items are just digested, discarded, or donated within a few years (at most). And then it is something “new.” And the cycle repeats.

One of the goals of Advent is to fix our gaze on what lasts. And this is the second thought that Psalm 100:4–5 spawns.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For Yahweh is good, and His love is eternal;
His faithfulness endures through all generations.

God’s love never gets old. And his faithfulness continues from generation to generation. This is stated as the reason³ to give thanks to him and praise his name.

And here’s the crazy thing. This is true every day of the year. It’s not only true on your good days. It’s not only true when you have not relapsed recently. It’s not only true when your family is getting along. It’s not only true when the political situation meets with your approval.

God is good, eternally loving, and faithful always.

This means we always have a reason to follow the New Testament injunctions to give thanks:

giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:20

And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Colossians 3:17

Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

So this Advent, in the midst of the cold, the commercialism, and the concerns of life, let’s fix our eyes on Christ. Let’s long for him like we’ve never longed for him before. Let’s allow him to fill us with his hope and peace and joy and love. And let’s be thankful.

Thank you for coming along for this journey.

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A note on dates:

Christmas always comes on December 25. However, as Thanksgiving is a fluid holiday (always on the fourth Thursday of November), it varies year-to-year how many days we have between Thanksgiving and December 1. Advent starts on the First Sunday of Advent, which could be as early as November 25—see 2018 and 2029.

I have decided to start this book on the First Sunday of Advent, which usually is perfectly compatible with starting daily readings on December 1. However, if you are reading this introduction on Black Friday in 2030, 2041, 2047, 2052, or 2058, the First Sunday of Advent will be December 1,⁴ so I would recommend reading the “first Sunday of Advent” tomorrow: Saturday, November 30. On the years when there are multiple days before the First Sunday of Advent and December 1, enjoy some skip days, because this daily devotional will really get going on December 1.

Advent runs from the First Sunday of Advent/December 1 through December 24 (Christmas Eve). The twelve days of Christmas are December 25 through January 5. Epiphany is January 6. Our journey together will cover these 38 days.

In this with you.

Thanks for reading.

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Notes and References

1. I plan on releasing this book in October or early November next year. ↩︎
2. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture citations are from the HCSB. ↩︎
3. The word “for” at the start of the line demonstrates this. ↩︎
4. 2024 was the most recent time the first Sunday fell on December 1, so it appears that the pattern (until our current calendar system gets overhauled) is 6 years, 11 years, 6 years, 5 years, and then it repeats. So 2058, 2069, 2075, 2080, etc. ↩︎

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