David:     I have a question for you Karen.

Karen:     Okay, ask it.

David:     When’s the recent time you recall when someone said a sincere thank you to you for something you did for them or maybe you gave them?

Karen:     Oh, I have one right at the top of my head. We live in a small town outside of Chicago There’s a high Hispanic population, 58% of our community speaks Spanish. I mean they’re immigrants. We’re sort of starting in a small group that has a lot of diversity. And so, we had a group of them come for a Bible study by a dinner around the table. And I worked hard and putting the dinner together and I keep the table set. So, there was a change of season setting that needed to be done all the things women find themselves doing. And after that time when we ate together and got to know one another a little bit better and then shared some things out of our lives, as people left, they were very grateful. Their point were lovely David… made a point of saying thank you for doing this. It was very sweet.

David:     Yeah, I also have a follow-up question. Okay, we’ll get to that in just a minute.

Karen:     Okay.

Intro:      Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.

David:     My follow-up question Karen is: How did that person make you feel when they said their kind words about the house in the warmth and a place as such?

Karen:     Well…yeah. It makes you feel good. It was a lot of work. I was exhausted at the end of the day. But it makes you feel like what you’ve been attempting to do is to create this beautiful environment. So that people can connect and know one another better and then be known themselves better. And so, it made me feel really good.

David:     Another question.

Karen:     All right.

David:     Do you think God has similar thoughts?

Karen:     Oh, that’s a lovely question. Yeah, when we say to God, “Thank you for all you’ve done,” and are effusive and do it as a matter of daily practice. I think it makes God feel good, too. Don’t you know?

David:     I actually believe that. There’s not a question in my mind about it. We’re in a series because Thanksgiving Day is coming. I have a little way to go yet where we’re trying to help people practice this spirit of gratitude in their lives and not to make it a busy work. It’s a busy month. November is. But we think this will help so that everything isn’t crammed into Thanksgiving Day. First of all, we said just start to compile a list of people you’re thankful for who have played a role in your life that’s been very beneficial.

Karen:     You did that. You had been doing that. List kept getting longer and longer as I recall as you remember people from way long ago. They influenced you or encouraged you or been there for you. It was extraordinary.

David:     And you took time to make a list for yourself as well. That means that puts you in that Thanksgiving mood. Okay?

Then the second thing we said last time we met, not thank the Lord for people, but thank the Lord for what we called this general word, blessing. You know, just the good things that have been a part of your life. I’ve never ever been in a position where we had no food in the house at all. We were just totally lost.

Karen:     I do have one memory of eating a lot of popcorn once with the kids. And lo and behold someone knocked at the door, saw they were having popcorn for dinner. This is a member of our church.

David:     This was a rare occasion too.

Karen:     She said “How about if I ordered pizza?” But God provided.

David:     Okay. So, he did. We didn’t have a time when we had nothing to eat. So anyway, my word still stands. Okay, so we’re talking about the good things. I put on the list we’ve been able to travel to many, many countries in the world.

Karen:     Fifty-five countries in the world. I mean, that’s extraordinary. And most of that was not tourism.

David:     No.

Karen:     We did have some of that. It was because we’ve been invited to come and minister, or I was doing journalism work and refugee and immigration camps around the world. That was extraordinary.

David:     Our list included things like clothes to wear. Good education. Good church experiences, and on and on. You’ve had the privilege to minister. I’m thought of by most people as the pastor or as the minister who officiates, but the Lord used you to write how many books is it seven or eight now?

Karen:     No, I think it’s a repulsive 23. What woman has that much to say? At my heart  I am a writer.

David:     I thank the Lord for movies that have influenced my life for the good.

Karen:     Can you name one movie?

David:     Of course, I can. Probably the first one that comes to my mind is the movie called “The mission.”

Karen:     Oh, yeah.

David:     It’s about the movement of the church in a South American country and it’s a bittersweet film. All the good intentions the enemy destroys. But anyway, that’s just one illustration. This time we’re going to bring into this mix of getting ready for the busiest of the days in November, Thanksgiving Day itself. Because people have travel plans that they have food to prepare. It’s a matter of saying, “How do we make sure that people get along with one another?” Nobody’s to talk politics around the thanksgiving table or whatever. But this time I’d like to have people think musically. I’m not a music person, but I do sing on occasion. You don’t hear me singing because it’s usually when I’m driving to the post office or I’m picking up one of the grandchildren at the school and on the way there or if it’s the post office run there and back, I tend to sing in the car. I’m a terrible, terrible singer, but I have memorized a lot of words of songs. I find that it’s not embarrassing to me if I pull up to a stop sign and somebody’s able to see. I think that they think I’m talking on the cell phone. But I’m not because that’s not a good thing to do either. But singing, I just enjoy it. And I say, “Lord excuse the bad pitch” and so on. And I flat quite often but my heart is full. And it’s the only way and know how to express it. So, I want people to think in terms of songs that have expressed thanksgiving that they have found meaningful.

Karen:     So, we did a research, and so wonderful to have the internet where you can pull down lyrics. And the first one I came up with is: “Come You Thankful People Come.” And I took it down from the internet, but it is in the United Methodist hymnal number 694.

“Come, ye thankful people, come; Raise the song of harvest home. All is safely gathered in Ere the winter storms begin. God, our Maker, doth provide. For our wants to be supplied. Come to God’s own temple, come; Raise the song of harvest home.”

Isn’t that beautiful?

David:     It was a very agrarian society.

Karen:     It was yeah.

David:     I heard to these more recent decades. It’s just interesting though because churches still sing that song, and it still brings tears to your eyes.

Karen:     Yeah. It does.

David:     You’re aware even as you start to sing it at how good the Lord has been to you in your lives. Psalm 95 verses 1 and 2, “Come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.”

Now that’s more kind of temple worship and so on. But it’s also a song, once you know the tune, you can sing it out your own.

Karen:     Okay, I have one.  From a very different source than what you’ve been calling.

David:     What’s the source.

Karen:     This is “We plow the fields and scatter” from Godspell.

David:     From theater. That’s right. Godspell. Actually, there were two huge musicals that came out.

Karen:     And life of Christ. Yeah

David:     Early on we’re talking…

Karen:     We were still at the Circle Church pastoring in the city of Chicago.

David:     So, Godspell was one of them.

Karen:     And the other was, Jesus Christ Superstar.

David:     Yeah, I liked Godspell better and the music was entrancing.

Karen:     I think we’re about ready for another musical that centers on the life of Christ because those have been years ago. And when you think that those two pieces came out on the life of Jesus, and they were just hits on Broadway and played all over our media and adaptations.

David:     And we’re a means of evangelism for people who are very seldom in church.

Karen:     We had a couple. She had been coming to our church. He was a young lawyer and came because she had him come. But he was not a Christian yet. And he went to see Jesus Christ Superstar and that profoundly affected him. I remember you leading him to the Lord at our dining room table. It was a beautiful story. Let me just read a little bit of the lyrics.  

“We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, but it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand. He sends the snow in winter, the warmth just welled the grain, the breezes, and the sunshine and soft refreshing rain.”

Now I can’t hold the tunes, but I wish I could sing the refrain. I can hear it in my head.

David:     And so can people who are listening.

Karen:     Ok.

“All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above. Then thank the Lord. Oh, thank the Lord for all his love.”

David:     I really want to thank you, Lord.

Karen:     Beautiful.

David:     Yeah, I would have raised thank you, thank you, Jesus. I was raised in church where they sang a lot of choruses. And they were easy to remember. And they were kind of catchy. But they weren’t highly involved lyrics. This one is a “Thank you, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, thank you, Jesus in my heart. Thank you, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus in my heart.”

Karen:     Oh, I love it. It’s beautiful. How sweet is that?

David:     Yeah, it is kind of sweet. Another one very similar. It’s the chorus type song. “Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. “Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and free.”

I think I got all those words right. That’s from a long time back in my life. Songs about God. Songs about Jesus. Songs about the Holy Spirit. Some of them are very beautiful. This is one that touches me very much. You’ll recognize the tune. I’m not going to try to sing it.

“Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ His Son. Now let the weak say, I am strong. Let the poor say, I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us. Now let the weak say, I am strong. Let the poor say, I am rich.”

And usually there’s a repetition and the men will sing it, and then the women will sing it “…because of what the Lord has done for us. Give thanks.”

They’re beautiful.

Karen:     So, this has been an extraordinary research experience for us as we prepared these podcasts on giving thanks during this month of thanksgiving because we had determined, as we’ve said already, that we didn’t want it just to be a blip. And with busy schedules, they can be wonderful days. Families gather and food is beautifully prepared. But we wanted to have deep spiritual meaning as well. And so, we would suggest there is still time before Thanksgiving Day itself that our listeners, if they don’t have anything already that they do in a tradition that extends Thanksgiving to more than just in one day. That they began to think of this month as Thanksgiving month.

David:     Wait till you hear the sentence I put together.

Karen:     Okay.

David:     Okay. Observing November as a Thanksgiving month will all but guarantee that your gratitude overflows on even the busiest of Thanksgiving days.

Karen:     That’s wonderful.

David:     I’ll do it again.  Observing November as a Thanksgiving month will all but guarantee that your gratitude overflows on even the busiest of Thanksgiving days. So, when Thanksgiving Day comes, you don’t have to say I got to cram it all into that one day, but it’s a process that is going on. Give you a tiny bit of background on Thanksgiving Day, can you?

Karen:     I have an extensive research that I’ve done on it. There’s about 10 pages. The day itself was chosen by, it might have been one of the Roosevelt’s, you were asking me before I’m kind of ready with this research. But the day has shifted quite a bit from one date that was set to another date to another date to another date. But I will get all that research together and we’ll talk about that on the next podcast because it’s very, very interesting. What we want to make sure is that deep response to God’s love and good work in our lives is not overshadowed by the to-do lists. All the things that we have to do, the too much time we spend watching video or spending time on our internet before we have given God the best of our time. So, as I said before on the last podcast, I have kept spiritual journals and I’ve just been going through them. And I had come up with a formula so that there’s sort of the same organization in each of my days. I begin with a word of praise and then it always goes into a list of things I’m thankful for. So, I have done this for 45 years. Believe me, I will testify it’s made me a much, much better person. But the scientific community has also studied it and we’re going to talk about that. What happens with people of gratitude as far as what that creates in their lives. We’re going to talk about that in the next podcast.

David:     Okay, so we have something for which we’re looking forward to. That will still be before Thanksgiving Day.

Karen:     Right.

David:     If you have only now begun to pay attention to what we’re saying, look at the people in your life for whom you can say, “I thank you for the contribution that person made to me.” Just write it on a piece of paper. You’re not going to write them a letter. I think you’re just going to note these people because you’ll be surprised how many people had a good influence on you and your relationship to the Lord.

Karen:     And I know that many of our listeners have developed their own mechanisms to increase gratefulness in their lives. And you may have a different approach that we haven’t known about ourselves. Would love to have you send that in, email it to us. Dean gives all that information at the end of our podcast, and we would love to inculcate if we can and use some of those ideas in the last podcast, we do on creating Thanksgiving.

David:     And after Thanksgiving is finished, we don’t stop the busy season. It just goes right on with advent and Christmas and New Year’s. So, we’re just trying to say, how do we stay on top of it all? Not making a complicated presentation, but just ideas we have and again ideas you have that you’d like to share.

Outgo:     You’ve been listening to the Before We Go Podcast. And if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address,  hosts@beforewego.show. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please remember to rate, review, and share on whatever platform you listen. This podcast is copyright 2023 by Mainstay Ministries, Post Office Box 30, Wheaton, Illinois 60187.