A master storyteller and sought-after Bible teacher and author known for her authenticity, Lisa Harper‘s writing and speaking overflows with colorful pop culture references that connect the dots between the Bible and modern life. She combines sound scriptural exposition with relatable anecdotes and comedic wit. Lisa is a mother to Missy, who she adopted from Haiti.
The entire video is above, and the complete transcript is below.
As a believer, I think we’d all say that Christmas and Easter are our favorite holidays. I mean that’s when He came. That’s when He gave up His life for us and then rose again. And so I love Christmas and Easter. They’re like my guacamole and queso. Those are like the two pillars of holidays for me.
But Thanksgiving runs a really close second. I know it’s an American holiday, but for me, as a Christ follower, it actually epitomizes how I feel about the gospel, how I feel about Christmas and Easter, because it’s all about gratitude. I think that gratitude, it’s not just the fruit of our faith, it’s the fertilizer.
Any time I’m in a place where I’m just weary, where even not necessarily weary and well-doing. I might be weary because my faith is waning and I’m kinda forgetting the main thing and getting caught up with anxiety or the manic of now instead of why He allows us to rub shoulders with non-believers and grumpy people.
Rental car kiosk. Not that I’m speaking from experience. That was just purely subjective.
Recently I was in an airport. I travel a lot. And I did have a very less than gracious interaction with someone over rental car. I was just fussing on the way out to pick up the rental car with the girl I was traveling with. Because our flight had been delayed and then we got this tiny little car I didn’t even think we’d fit in and we’d rented the right car, and it just felt like it was Murphy’s Law of a day.
As we’re walking through the garage of Dallas-Fort Worth to get this tiny car that I wasn’t even sure my hips were going to fit in, she said, “Stop and give me ten.” I was like, now is not the time to do calisthenics. She said, “No. Stop and tell me ten things you’re grateful for.” It’s like it just arrested me. In that moment I stopped and so quickly was able to reel off ten things that day and that moment where I thought, “I am so glad. So grateful God did this.” It just totally realigned my heart back to toward the things that really matter.
To me, that’s what Thanksgiving does in a very tangible, practical way. It makes you stop and go, “What am I grateful for?” I think it also reminds us that we have a seat at the table. Because that’s where I’m most grateful. Where I’m most grateful, where I continually practice kind of the idea of thanksgiving is where I’m undone because of Jesus. I have a seat at God’s table.
I was just reading in Colossians this morning, where Paul says, “You used to be aliens and your minds were apart from God. You were actually an enemy of the state”, is kind of what he says. But because of Jesus, now you have a seat at the table.
That’s what I am most grateful for and that’s what I think should always be in the back of our minds when celebrate literal Thanksgiving. It’s an amazing, amazing holiday for Christ-followers.
