To the Editor:
This Thanksgiving we can fight discontent by not comparing ourselves with very rich Americans. With all their wealth many are bored, lonely and miserable. Proof material prosperity isn’t enough to satisfy without Jesus. Poverty is real but relative and changing. California was once the richest and most desirable state to live in and considered paradise. Now it’s home to the most homeless and illegals and record fires. In August 2018 the massive fire burning south of Los Angeles was named Holy Fire. Dr. John McTernan said the name was fitting because the evil and great sin of California was receiving God’s judgment. See Psalm 9:17 and Malachi 4:1. The California Mendocino Fire in October 2018 was the largest in state history. Two days after the November elections wildfires broke out in Paradise, Calif., and destroyed it. Think “Paradise Lost” book. Strangely the author of the book, John Milton, died on the exact day the fire started (November 8) 344 years before. The Camp Fire this month is the deadliest and most destructive in state history. The Woolsey Fire started the same day as the Camp Fire. The Woolsey Fire burned through a nuclear waste site and may have spread toxic and radioactive substances. The Woolsey Fire caused the Malibu area fire that is home to so many rich celebrities. The Hollywood celebrity ‘gods’ that many Americans worship were forced to flee and many of their homes were completely destroyed. In the future all Americans will be poor during the soon coming tribulation when the electric power is cut off. So you can say America’s great riches hangs by a thread or electric wire. We can be thankful God has delayed His great judgment for America but we know it’s coming to many evil places such as California, New York and New Orleans and to each of us if we have rejected Jesus. We can be thankful that Jesus is coming soon to take Christians to the greatest paradise — Heaven!
Economist Thomas Sowell said American poor (most are overweight) are the envy of the poor of the rest of the world. Most people of the world eat the same thing every day and are glad to have it. World Vision said if you have clean water and a decent bathroom, you are richer than one-third of the world’s population. Doctors say it’s good for our health to be thankful. Human psychology is such, we aren’t made happy by what we acquire, but by what we are thankful for or appreciate. Rich is determined not by what we have but how little we need. The Bible says if you have food and clothes be content. The Bible commands in everything give thanks to God. Christians are the most thankful people because Christians are thankful first and always to Jesus who with His precious blood fully paid for all our sins on the cross. The proper attitude for America is the attitude of gratitude. C.S. Lewis wrote, “We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is ‘good,’ because it is good, if ‘bad,’ because it works in us patience, humility and contempt of this world and hope of our eternal country.”

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton