Thanksgiving from the Ten Commandments
Thanksgiving, or gratitude, comes, I suppose we would all agree, from the heart. But while for most of us the heart is metaphorically the seat of feeling and emotion, for the Bible the heart is thought of differently. There it is metaphorically styled as the seat of the intellect, passions, and will. I liken it NASA’s “command center.” There our priorities (deepest convictions), passions (what moves us to act; what Jonathan Edwards called the “affections”), and practices (what we do) ideally work in concert to bring us integrity. This is that place of integration where we experience coherence, compassion, and commitment as one in the deepest core of our being. Here, deep below the surface commotions and crisis through which we all live, lies joy. And joy is the sibling of freedom. That brings us to the Ten Commandments. ...