Keep Your Eye Upon the Doughnut

by The Rev. Richard Preis

One day each week at noon I have the privilege of serving in rotation with the priests here at the Cathedral in conducting the noon Eucharist. One noon as I entered the cathedral wearing my clerical, I passed a gentleman of the streets who was sitting on the floor in the hall. I smiled and said, “Good morning.” He responded, “What’s good about it?” I then said, “Well God is here and that helps, I hope.”

I could not stay longer since I needed to go to the sacristy and get my robes on and go to the chapel. But I invited him to attend the service.

Sometimes there are four or five people at the service.  Other times there is only one or two.  But when I came to the chapel that day, there were nine worshipers, including the man who had been sitting on the floor in the hall.  It was evident he had some knowledge of liturgical worship since he crossed himself with the others at appropriate places in the liturgy. He spoke the last line of each of the responses after the others. He prayed The Lord’s Prayer with all of us.  The others all went to him and included him when we passed the peace and he also joined in.  He knelt at the communion rail for the sacrament. He took the host with gentle care, bowed his head, but refused the wine.

After the service was concluded, the other worshipers spoke to him and welcomed him.  As he departed he came to me and said, “Now that was good. Thank you.”  It really mattered to him that these people welcomed him.

The first expression my street friend gave to me, “What is good about it?” is being echoed by multitudes of people in our society today.  There are bad things happening for good people.  The downward trend in the economy is affecting all of us, but some much more than others.

Today is a time each year that is set apart to give thanks to God.  As I hear the grumbling of people of all economic situations of life, I sometimes hear said, “This is a rough time for thanksgiving.”

Well, for many people these are really difficult times, for some these are sort of difficult times, and for others it certainly is not as bad as it is for some people. Their giving of thanks is difficult for some folks. I have known of people whose philosophy of life is, “In whatever situation of life, there in will I be discontent.” One of the Shakespeare plays opens with the line, “It was the winter of our discontent.” I know people who add spring, summer and fall.

Let’s face it, there are always times of difficulty and problems and rough situations in life for any and all of us.  I grew up in the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Times were rough.  The first ten years of my life we lived in 5 different apartments or houses.

Yet in every one of those 5 homes my dear mother had the wisdom and good sense and good attitude to have hanging on whichever of the kitchen walls a framed poster from the Mayflower doughnut company. On either side of the poster were two figures holding a doughnut. One was smiling. The other had a frown and in the middle of the poster are the words, “As you ramble on through life, Brother whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole!”

“0 give thanks unto the Lord for he is Good and his mercies endure forever.”  That is the part of the doughnut which should be in our minds and hearts as we come to celebrate Thanksgiving.

There was an Academy Award-winning movie in the late ‘30s which I saw recently on Turner Classic Movies that took place during that period of history called “You Can’t Take it With You.” In the home in the film not just family members reside, but others who had lost homes and needed a place to stay.  There was always a crowd around the dinner table. Grandpa always said the prayer and expressed important truths.  In several he said, “Well, Lord, we are all here together again and we have had some rough experiences, but I reckon that there’s nothing we can’t get through if we put our trust in You.”

I remember a Gospel hymn from those years that said the same thing.  “Ask the Savior to help you, comfort, strengthen and keep you.  He is willing to aid you.  He will carry you through.”

For those of us who have the good fortune to know the Lord, we have been given a powerful source of strength for any and all situations of life.  On the day of our baptism the words were said, “Receive the sign of the holy cross that henceforth you shall know the Lord and the power of His resurrection and the blessed hope of everlasting life.”

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT!

On the day of confirmation the blessing is renewed:  “The Father in heaven for Jesus’ sake renew and increase in you the gift of the Holy Spirit, to your strengthening in faith, to your growth in grace, to your patience in suffering and the blessed hope of everlasting life.”

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT!

That promise means that the Lord is with us now and forever, in any and every situation of life.  The good times, the bad times and the time in between the times, neither life nor death, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the Loving God in Heaven.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT!

That is what this side of the doughnut has for the Christian, not the hole.  And because of that blessing of God’s eternal love and presence with us in any and every situation of life, we should be able to say not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day. “0 give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good and His mercy endures forever.”