The great British Poet, Rudyard Kipling was a very famous writer even before he died, and made a great deal of money at his trade.
One day a newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, ”Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over $100 a word.” Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, ”Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that.” The reporter cynically reached into his pocket and pulled out a $100 bill and gave it to Kipling and said, ”Here’s a $100 bill Mr. Kipling. Now give me one of your $100 words.”
Rudyard Kipling looked at that $100 bill for a moment, took it and folded it up and put it in his pocket and said, ”Thanks.”
One might say the word ”thanks” is certainly a $100 word. Maybe even a million dollar word. A word that may be close to being put on the endangered species list.
Tonight we, the Disciples of Jesus, from Corpus Christi Church and St. Mary’s Church, Crescent and beyond gather to say, thanks! Today and hopefully throughout the year. We give thanks for the blessings of faith, family, friends, the blessings of opportunity… the blessing to make a difference…
In the past few days, a national news item, shared the story of a young boy in NYC who wanted the NYC Police Department to know that he really appreciated their efforts. The boy, age about 7, decided he wanted to PERSONALLY thank every NYC police person (all 34,000 of them). So began the process a year ago and one day a week he and his mother, on her day off, visit NYC Police Stations and there the boy personally gives each police officer a hand-shake and a word of thanks, along with a card of appreciation. The boy is a year older from when he began, but he continues to give thanks.
Makes you wonder what we could do that maybe we have put off, or maybe have not had time to consider, when it comes to giving thanks to God and to others.
And maybe this Thanksgiving we might ask our God for a more positive attitude… something that is often lacking in our world today.
It’s been said that:
A POSITIVE ATTITUDE IS CONTAGIOUS, BUT DON’T WAIT TO CATCH IT FROM OTHERS. BE A CARRIER.