America's fake Thanksgiving problem
From the Dashboard >
Every year around this time, America does its best to conjure gratitude out of thin air.
We attempt to manufacture a counterfeit thankfulness with marketing campaigns, Instagram reels, sentimental commercials, and pumpkin-spiced everything. Yet behind it all, there remains an unrelenting lack of contentedness.
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There’s a reason for that. The kind of genuine gratitude that settles the soul doesn’t come from “holiday vibes.” It comes from something far older, far steadier, and far less performative.
Ethics professor (and one of my favorite social media follows) Andrew T. Walker unintentionally summarized it perfectly after a normal Sunday at church:
The ordinary means of grace sustain the Christian life… There’s a settled beauty in knowing we don’t need constant emotional spikes or manufactured ‘spiritual highs’ to walk with Christ; just steady faithfulness in the things God has given.
Walker’s idea seems absurd to a culture addicted to adrenaline and endless stimulation like ours. But if the last twelve months have revealed anything, it’s that our world is chronically overstimulated and spiritually malnourished.
Think about where we’ve been over the course of the last year:
Russia grinding through Ukraine.
China shadow-boxing Taiwan.
Livestreams from the Gaza warzone.
Inflation cooling one month, roaring the next.
Interest rates giving whiplash to homebuyers.
Viral school board meetings with parents and administrators screaming at each other.
Whistleblowers, Supreme Court leakers, assassinations, and neo-Nazis.
Algorithms inducing outrage faster than our minds can process.
Allow me to humbly suggest that we won’t find peace in the middle of that with another self-care trend or a feel-good slogan slapped on a coffee mug. You fix it by returning to something sturdy - something that doesn’t flicker with the news cycle - something rooted in the character of God rather than the chaos of the moment.
This is exactly why Scripture keeps pulling us back to remembering. God knows how forgetful we are, so His Word calls us again and again to remember - to steady our hearts by looking backward at His faithfulness. As Moses told the people in Deuteronomy 8: “Remember the way the Lord your God has led you.” Gratitude isn’t a feeling you conjure up; it’s a response to what God has already proven.
And it’s not just Moses. When Joshua led Israel across the Jordan, God commanded the people to stack twelve stones as a memorial so future generations would ask, “What do these stones mean?” It would cause them to hear again the story of God’s faithfulness (Joshua 4). Even their landscape was supposed to preach: God brought you through. Don’t forget it.
It’s why the Bible later records the example of a mighty King leading an entire nation in a song of thanks - a pattern we would be wise to follow.
When David proclaims lines like:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
“Seek the Lord and His strength.”
“Remember the wondrous works that He has done.”
…he isn’t summoning spiritual fireworks. He’s grounding the people in truth. He’s calling Israel to do what every one of us can and should do on an average Tuesday, no less one set aside for gratitude:
Remember who God is.
Remember what He’s done.
Rest in His unchanging faithfulness.
And notice - David doesn’t mention “God’s latest blessing” or “this week’s miracle.” He roots gratitude in God’s character, not God’s recent performance. That’s the quiet brilliance of real thanksgiving: it survives every news cycle.
I think that’s Walker’s point. The ordinary means of grace - preaching, prayer, fellowship, Scripture - are more stabilizing than the emotional rollercoaster our world straps us into. They remind us that peace isn’t found in chasing the next spiritual high but in walking with the God who “does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).
We don’t need a global movement to secure our peace.
We don’t need a viral moment to validate our faith.
We don’t need a “spiritual experience” you can shout about on social media.
We need a local church.
We need the Word of God.
We need God-fearing friends.
We need the quiet, steady grace Jesus gives.
And we need a calm, contented, thankful heart.
So maybe this Thanksgiving, instead of mimicking the frenzy around us, we’d be wise to:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
“Remember His covenant forever.”
“Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.”
What if the calm we want is found not in changing the world, but in remembering the One who already has?
What if gratitude is not an emotional high, but a spiritual anchor?
And what if Thanksgiving works best not because it’s a national holiday, but because it reminds us of a Christian reality:
We live in a world full of problems, but our hope is built on a Savior who has overcome them all.
That’s something to be thankful for.