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Happy Thanksgiving!

We have the turkey; we have the fresh cranberries ready to be cooked. We have the E.D. Smith pumpkin for the pie and the pastry ready in the fridge. We have the apples for the alternate pie as not everyone likes pumpkin. We have my father's mustard pickles, and we have the squash and turnip ready to go. We have a variety of miniature squashes and gourds for me to attempt a "Martha Stewart moment" and create a centrepiece for the table.

We have it all. We're just waiting for Sunday afternoon, and then we'll enjoy the aroma of the turkey cooking and the fogging of our windows as the steaming vegetables fill the house with moisture. We'll unfold fall foliage napkins, lay them on our laps and bow our heads to thank God for our food. We'll sit around our table and each in turn will share what they're thankful for. The list is too long.

Yet, as I anticipate this time of feasting and traditional over-indulgence, there is a bit of uneasiness, that maybe masking itself as guilt. I'm uneasy because this weekend, while most of us are feasting, many around the world are wondering where their next meal is coming from. While I'm loosening my belt after one too many pieces of pie, others are tightening theirs because they can't make ends meet.

So how do we, who have so much, thank God with integrity this Thanksgiving weekend?

This week, I received an online newsletter from World Vision. They evidently understand the struggle that we who live in wealthy countries wrestle with as we sit down and enjoy our meals. They have published a booklet called "Thanking God with Integrity -- Table Grace in a World of Hunger" by Willard Metzger.

Here's what Metzger says; "When we are blessed with a beautiful meal, sometimes

it's tough to savour God's gifts of food because of our underlying feelings of guilt for having so much. How do we thank God sincerely for the food, express our thanks and joy at the variety, while remaining sensitive to the needs of our hungry neighbours in other parts of the world?"

That's a good question. And Metzger says we can make a global difference by making mealtime a time of thanks and of mission. He is especially targeting Christians who gather for potlucks and other meals together -- how we need to thank God, and yet feed a sense of responsibility to help those who are hungry.

These prayers of thanksgiving remind all of us that the food we have is meant to nourish and strengthen us so we can take action by sharing with others, helping those locally and globally who have so little.

This Thanksgiving weekend, as we gather around our tables, maybe we might pray a prayer something like this:

"Dear God: We will eat today and be fed. So in thankfulness we share in this feast. But Lord we pray, do not curb our hunger for love. Do not curb our hunger for justice. Instead, use the satisfaction of this meal to increase our hunger for equity -- so that all can eat and be fed. Amen."

Metzger's quote is my prayer for all of us this Thanksgiving: "Enjoy the food and in thankful celebration, use it to feed the resolve to feed others."

For more, go to: http://www.worldvision.ca/GetInvolved/Responding-Churches/Documents/Thanking-God-with-Integrity.pdf

* Carolyn Steeves is the Campus Pastor of the Dickson Blvd. Campus of Allison Church. She also works at Allison Church in Outreach & Communications. Her Religion Today column appears every fifth week on Faith Page.