Texas Faith: Why do we say grace over a meal, including at Thanksgiving?
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But why do we say grace over a meal, including a traditional one like the Thanksgiving dinner?
But why do we say grace over a meal, including a traditional one like the Thanksgiving dinner?
Life is a self-balancing act. Everything we do and say is spiritual as well as a real-life transaction that moves the needle from balance to imbalance, and back to balance.
The mechanism is built around forgiveness, repentance, service and gratitude. These values are a product of co-existence and inculcated through religious teachings. However, atheists would also achieve the same without invoking God.
The accountant chants that for every debit there is a credit. The physicist has proved that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And the doctor declares that blood lost from the body of an individual must be replenished with an equal amount of blood to sustain life.
As a spiritualist I say, for every wrong we do, an equal amount of energy is drained from us. And for every good we do, energy is recouped. We are constantly receiving and giving energy. Intake and output must be equal to have a healthy living, or else we are thrown off balance.
For every hurt we hurl on others, an equal amount of burden gets dumped on us. Until we say “sorry” and repent genuinely, the energy balance within us deteriorates. The transaction remains incomplete.
Why do we say grace over a meal?
Expression of gratitude is the ultimate balancing act in everyone’s life. We know from whom we receive the good and to whom we offer our gratitude. The absence of a simple “thank you” creates an imbalance in the relationship and spiritual energy while a simple “thank you” will tie the loose ends and restore the balance.
When the giver is not identified, to whom do we give thanks? The accident we got out of safely, the job we did not lose or the meal we are able to have must be accounted for.
For believers, that source is identified as God, and it behooves them to say grace over the meal. The transaction will be fully complete when we become considerate to those who do not have the same basic things in life as we do. Prophet Muhammad had said when you have nothing to give to others; the least you can give is hope, and a smile to let them know that we care.
Published in Dallas Morning News. Message from all contributors at:
http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2012/11/texas-faith-why-do-we-say-grace-over-a-meal-including-at-thanksgiving.html/
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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a
writer on pluralism, politics, peace making,
foreign policy, Islam, Israel, India, Pakistan, interfaith, and cohesion at
work place or social settings. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and
offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a
strong presence on national local TV, Radio and Print Media, and is a frequent
guest on Sean Hannity
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contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning
News, fortnightly at Huffington
post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you
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