Texas Faith: Why do we say grace over a meal, including at Thanksgiving?

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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 – Mike Ghouse

 
Texas Faith: Why do we say grace over a meal,
including at Thanksgiving?

MIKE GHOUSE,
President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas

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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