Terry Paul Choyce
Thanksgiving, October 9, 2005, Brunswick Street United Church
Shazza sends me witty saying and photos over the email almost every day. Today she
sent me this: "Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and
washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all
the yucky stuff-- including the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Then He carves you a new
smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see."
Today we are celebrating Thanksgiving, and we are also celebrating the 75th birthday of
our dear friend Elnora. Elnora has so much of God's light shining through her. Every week
she is here with smiles, hugs, songs, and words of wisdom. She is always telling us how
much she appreciates being a part of this church, how she feels like we are her family. I
think this is so wonderful that Elnora has the courage to express her feelings, and her
opinions. Too often most of us sit in silence, not telling people how much they mean to us.
Or we are too preoccupied to even be aware of how we feel, or what we think. We should
all follow the example of Elnora and tell people positive things every day.
What would the world be like if we all concentrated on the good things that happened to
us? What would it be like if for every negative word, we had to say 10 positive ones?
What would it be like if each of us decided to find something to be happy about every day,
every hour, every minute? Can you imagine how different life would be for all of us if we
dealt quickly with our problems, and spent long stretches of time celebrating all that was
good and right with us? Soon we would have less problems, because those who caused
them would also be emphasising the positive, so the problems would not be created. I
think that even much of our illnesses would vanish if we were less stressed and angry. It
has been proven that many of our health problems are generated by our inability to
effectively deal with our negative emotions. Less negativity will mean better health. I
know this is true.
It is not easy having good thoughts, because most of us have life-long patterns of
concentrating on what is wrong in our lives. We have to retrain our minds to be positive.
There are tricks to this. I was once instructed to put a rubber band around my wrist.
Whenever I found my mind focussing on the problem I had at the time which, frankly, was
pretty unfixable, I was told to gently snap the rubber band as a reminder to me to change
the flow of my thoughts. I was also taught this technique, which I will teach you right
now.
Close your eyes. Think about a place where you felt totally at peace. A forest, on the
beach, in the bathtub, in this church, in a garden. What colours do you see? What do you
hear? Is it warm? Take a deep breath. Relax into this sacred place of yours. Be so
grateful to be there. Now with your right hand, take your left hand and squeeze this
memory into the palm of your hand. As you squeeze, keep your eyes closed, and
concentrate on this wonderful place of peace and happiness.
Now open your eyes. You have just locked in a mental image which will help you feel good
when you are stressed out. When your are feeling uptight, just take a minute and close
your eyes and squeeze your left palm. This will trigger your memory and your feeling of
peacefulness and joy.
In our New Testament lesson today (2 Cor. 6-15) Paul tells the story of the seeds. He
says if you plant just a few seeds, you will have a small crop. If you plant many seeds, your
crop will be large. Let's apply this truth to our thoughts and actions. If we plant just a few
happy thoughts, our harvest of happiness will be tiny. If we plant many seeds of happiness
in our minds and in our actions, we will have a bountiful harvest of good things. Verses 10
to 12 say "And God, who supplies seed for the sower and bread to eat, will also supply you
with all the seed you need and will make it grow and produce a rich harvest from your
generosity. He will always make you rich enough to be generous at all times, so that many
will thank God for your gifts which they receive from us.. For this service you perform not
only meets the needs of God's people, but also produces an outpouring of grateful thanks
to God."
Last June Hazel planted seeds, and today she has shared her bounty with us. Thank-you
Hazel. Paul wasn't strictly referring to plant seeds in his lesson. He meant seeds of
goodness and love. When we spread seeds of joy, compassion, and generosity, we get them
back in abundance. When we spread seeds of greed, doubt, and hate, that is what we get
back as well - eventually. This is the law of Karma. This is the word of Jesus "As you sow,
so shall you reap." What do you want to reap in your life? The choice is yours.
Elnora has chosen to sow seeds of love and gratitude. We have all benefited from this. I'd
like to thank her for making all of our lives brighter with her inner light and her sweet
smile and her kind words. May all of us try to be more like her. Let us smile more. Let us
play more. Let us give thanks, to each other, and to God for all of our blessings.
©Terry Paul Choyce. Used with permission from the author.
