Enjoy the Sandwich

Prayer

Recognize the Good

There was a rock singer / songwriter popular in the 1970’s by the name of Warren Zevon (his most famous song was the 1978 hit, “Werewolves of London”). In 2002 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. During that time he made an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Letterman asked him if there was anything that he understood now that he was facing his own mortality. Zevon responded, “Just how much you’re supposed to enjoy every sandwich.”

I love that he captured beautifully this idea of delighting in even the most simple pleasures in life. Something as everyday and basic as eating a sandwich. That I have something in my hands that is good, and I get to eat and enjoy it. Even if it’s something I had the yesterday and day before and day before that. Because it’s now, in this moment that I get to eat and enjoy it. Every sandwich.

And yet we don’t. When we do family vacations, like the one we did this summer, we tend to do breakfast and lunches on our own, and then we eat out for dinner. Which means - since we’re out and about during the day, that we eat sandwiches for lunch - it was basically our lunch every day. I’d love to be able to tell you that we enjoyed every sandwich, but truthfully, we got a little tired of sandwiches, there got to be a little grumbling about that - we were not enjoying every sandwich. Not particularly thankful for them.

This is our Community Thanksgiving Service, we’re in the season of Thanksgiving, so I want to talk a little about giving thanks - and why it’s so essential. Why it’s such a good for us to engage in. Why we really should enjoy every sandwich, eat them with grateful hearts.

We know, intuitively, that we should be thankful. We make a point of teaching our children to be thankful. I think it’s fair to say that it bothers us a little bit when people don’t say thank you.

I was aware of that when we were giving out candy for Trick-or-Treat this year. We get a lot of kids coming through our neighborhood for Trick-or-Treat, so it’s a fun evening for my wife and I to set our chairs out at the edge of driveway, have our little fire pit going. One of the groups coming around, it was a mix of kids and adults - don’t know if the kids were siblings, or cousins, maybe just friends or neighbors. Anyway, the kids come up and get their candy and move on.

Now our neighborhood is essentially a big loop, so as they make their way through the whole neighborhood, they come back around to our house, and the kids start running over to us. The adults with them are hollering at them - “we’ve already been to that house!”

They are undeterred, they come right back up, but they know it’s their second time up. So the older one decides to make a deal, tells me he’ll trade me. Now I was just going to give him another piece (even though they were snaking their way into my post-Halloween candy stash), so I throw the piece into his bag - but then he slams his bag shut, runs away, shouting, “no trade!” Then his sister does the same thing!

So, not only do I get gypped out of the trade deal, but not even a thank you - and I gave them candy twice! I was a little tempted to chase ‘em down.

Now it is an interesting thing to watch - some kids just run up, don’t say a word, get their candy, and they are off. And then there are the ones whose parents are standing behind them - did you say, “thank you?”

And when you’re the one giving the gift, you like hearing “thank you.” It doesn’t settle as well when someone doesn’t acknowledge the gift. I know that’s not the reason we’re supposed to give - we should be generous as God is generous to us, but there is a part of us - uh, that’s a little disappointing.

You think about it, I think that’s because it’s such an essential part of way we connect with one another. It’s an encouragement to do good toward one another.

Think about those situations where it’s a crazy traffic jam - everyone trying to leave a large event at the same time. You’re stuck in the lane where - if someone doesn’t show some kindness, some decency, it’s going to be a long, long time for you to get out of there. So when someone finally does let you in - what do you do - you acknowledge it, thanks!

Because it’s one of those things that our culture function betters when we’re good to each other, when we’re considerate, those small kindnesses that demonstrate thoughtfulness towards others - opening the door, stopping to help someone who’s carrying too big a load, or dropped something and doesn’t realize it.

And “thank you” is the way we say to each other - I recognize the good you’re demonstrating to me. I recognize it and I’m glad you’re doing it! Keep doing it! And I’ll try to do the same. It is a recognizing of the good. And when we recognize the good - and acknowledge it by those simple words, “thank you”, that helps encourage us toward being good to each other.

Which, another way to say it, is to love each other. The best, simplest definition of love is to be for the good of the other. When someone does good to me, gives me a gift of some sort, and I say, “thank you” I am recognizing their good, their act of love. And this brings us to God, and why it’s so essential for us to express our gratitude to him, to engage in Thanksgiving. That’s what this holiday is all about - giving thanks to God. Recognizing his good. This is exactly what God teaches us through his Scriptures.

Recognizing the Good of God

Psalm 107:1-16...Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, 3 those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. 4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. 5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. 6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. 8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, 9 for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. 10 Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, 11 because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High. 12 So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. 13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. 14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. 15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, 16 for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. That’s it. The whole point - when we give thanks to God, we are recognizing and acknowledging his goodness, his forever enduring love.

That’s what the psalmist is doing here, reminding the people to proclaim all the good things - as he describes them, the his wonderful deeds for mankind” that they people have experienced from God. And he goes through a whole litany of how God has poured his goodness upon them (by the way, this psalm goes on for twenty-seven more verses, I only shared a bit of it).

How God saved them from their trouble - whether they were wandering in the desert wastelands, or hungry or thirsty, lives ebbing away. God saved them even if they brought the trouble upon themselves, rebelling against, despising the plans of the Most High. When they cried out, he responded, saving them out of the darkness. Breaking the chains that bound them up.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. So that’s the thought, that to give thanks is to recognize the good - in this case, God’s goodness, and then to acknowledge it, Lord, thank you for your goodness to me.

But I want to take this a step further. Let’s consider this together - When Warren Zevon said that the lesson he learned was “just how much you’re supposed to enjoy every sandwich”, I don’t want you to hear that “supposed to” as a duty, an obligation (oh, well, I guess I have to enjoy this sandwich. Who knows, it might not be a very good sandwich). But rather (and to be honest, I don’t know if he meant it this way, but this is what I think is true) I think we should hear this, “supposed to” in the sense that this was the design, the purpose, behind the good gift. What do I mean by that?

It’s that the giver - this case, God, gives the gift because he wants to share his goodness with us. He wants us to experience the pleasure of all the wonderful foods he’s blessed us with, he wants us to delight in beautiful music, and bask in the warmth of the sun, the refreshment of water, smell of a fall day. It’s why God made the world as he did, so that we might enjoy all these good things. That’s why he made each of us wonderfully unique, with different personalities, different gifts, and different appearances, so that we might enjoy one another. That’s why you’re supposed to enjoy every sandwich! Because you were meant to.

After all, don’t we do the same things? When you give a gift to someone, the joy comes in watching them delight in the gift. I’ve already got a couple of Christmas gifts for my wife (that’s right, guys, take notes) - one of the gifts, I’m not really sure about, I hope she’ll like it. The other one, I can’t wait to give her. I think she’s going to love it, get excited about it. And I’m looking forward to watching her open it up and see her reaction - because I want her to enjoy the good gift I’m giving her. It is the very reason I’m giving it to her. Out of love, by expressing what I think will be for her good.

How much more so God! I love how many Bible passages talk about God’s grace towards us - grace is simply undeserved goodness. So many passages speak about the overwhelming abundance of that undeserved goodness towards us. And I love Dallas Willard’s reminder, that it’s not just about God’s forgiveness of our sins (which is amazing in and of itself), but all of his good gifts are graces toward us. As Dallas Willard says, even if we didn’t need the forgiveness of sins, we would still need his grace. And he gives it freely and fully.

How rich that grace is: John 1:16, For from his fullness (fullness of his grace and truth) we have all received, grace upon grace. It just keeps piling up, grace upon grace upon grace. He’s so full of grace, it just comes pouring out. Ephesians 2:6-7, talking about how we have already been raised up with Christ, seated in the heavenly realms - “in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace.” God is filthy rich in grace, and he wants to show and share it with us.

Here’s the thing - we can miss it. We do, all the time. We can miss enjoying the sandwich because we’re so caught up in the TV program we’re watching while we eat it or it’s just food to shovel down our throats as fast as we can or we’re so preoccupied with what we have to do next or any other ways we distract ourselves and miss the good gift that God has blessed us with in that moment. Sad part is - we’re the ones who lose out. We miss not just enjoying whatever that gift may be - but even more so, the experience of knowing God’s goodness and love.

To “enjoy the sandwich”, is an opportunity to recognize what we have as God’s good gift to us, his love and goodness tangibly expressed. It is an opportunity to receive God’s love in the moment - his transforming love.

I’m guessing most of you have participated in - or are at least familiar with Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan’s Purse’s amazing ministry of sharing shoe boxes packed with gifts as a way to share the great news of Jesus Christ. And if you’ve ever seen a video of kids whose lives have been changed through the gift of that shoe box, over and over again what you’ll hear is the story of kids who didn’t just delight in a box full of gifts, but recognized the goodness and love being expressed in the gift of that box full of gifts.

And that realization - I am loved, somebody cares about me - opened their hearts to the Gospel, to recognize and receive God’s love for them, and that set them on a journey to becoming followers of Jesus.

And it’s no different for us - we have the opportunity to soak in God’s love on a day-to-day, moment-by-moment basis as we slow down to enjoy the good in our lives - to recognize them as God’s gifts, spurred by his love for us. And this is when our lives, our hearts, are truly transformed. This is what most spurs us to love back, to respond in loving, willing obedience. Duty - that kind of “supposed to” only takes you so far. But love, knowing you are loved, that’s what really grows our hearts in Jesus.

So, in this season of Thanksgiving, I want to encourage to enjoy the gift you have in that moment. Take a big ol’ bite of that peanut butter and jelly sandwich (especially if it’s on white bread, peanut butter on both sides, packed with jelly, the way God designed PB & J’s to be), delight in that Philly cheese steak. Even if it’s another sandwich made of leftover turkey. Enjoy every sandwich.

Seriously, slow down enough to delight in the good gift you are receiving in the moment. Recognize it as God’s goodness to you. Let your heart swell with the God’s love and goodness for you. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever.”