Thanksgiving Thoughts

It’s Thanksgiving Day and like most people I know, my family will be gathering together to enjoy a meal celebrating the day we set aside to give thanks for the things we are grateful for. We will go around the table and each one of us will say something we are grateful for. Every year I wrestle with it and always end up saying “friends and family” because it sounds good and you can’t go wrong with it even if the last three people used it. I could say I am thankful for my job, which I am, but one of my family members is unemployed and that would be like adding insult to injury.

I could say I am thankful for Jesus dying on the cross for me, but that would be way too preachy to a brother-in-law who has been taking baby steps for years toward God and for whom I pray like the dickens. The last thing I want to do right now is drive a wedge in between them. But, though I have an infinite number of things for which I am grateful, including friends, family and Jesus, I am also grateful for something I had kind of forgotten about until recently when an opportunity came to be a guest speaker at an AA meeting.

I admit it’s been a while since I was last at an AA meeting. I have no excuses. I guess it’s because the desire to drink left so long ago I think I don’t need them. But out of the blue, an AA friend from years ago called us and asked if we would be speakers for a month long 12 steps panel meeting. I agreed, then realized the terrible truth, I no longer remembered them. It had been so long since I read my big book or been to meetings that I had forgotten the 12 steps that saved my life.

Quickly reviewing them each week before I spoke stirred up memoires for me and I was able to share my experiences about working the steps. I succeeded in doing what I had been asked to do and a funny thing happened to me. I realized how much I missed AA meetings. And I realized just how much my life has changed over the years because of AA and not drinking. The life I lead now is radically differently than the life I once led. I would not trade my worst day now for the best day I had then. I am filled with gratitude beyond words for the life God has so graciously given me. His plan is amazing!

I know what I am going to say today. I will say I am thankful for family and friends, but I am also going to say I am grateful that the life I lead today is not the life I once led. It may leave them scratching their heads, but I will say it because it’s true. I am grateful that God stepped into my life 26 years ago and saved me from certain death from addiction and I have never been the same. It is Happy Thanksgiving!