by Darnell Whitfield

There is a lot wrong with the United States of America. I know, I know that you are saying, “Well, Pastor Whitfield, there is a lot wrong with many countries in the world today.”

You are absolutely right, but the truth is I don’t live in those other countries, I live in the United States of America and the state of Virginia in particular.

Don’t get me wrong. My heart goes out to people who have been made to become refugees because of murderers and rapists who have scared men, women and children into fleeing their homes hopefully to find peace in a strange land, if that land will take them in. I pray for them that they will find places where they can find peace for themselves and their families.

The United States is where I reside. It is filled with a whole lot of what is wrong. It seems that love and communication among family members, neighbors, city and state authorities and races have become almost extinct.

No one seems to care about the needs of our elderly, our children and those who are in need. I mean, every day as I go along life’s highway I come in contact with people who are asking for help and many times I would take what is left in my pockets to help them, because every little bit helps.

Many times, I have been asked, “Why do you give to these people, knowing that they may use the money to buy alcohol or even drugs?”

My answer is quite simple, I have been commanded by God, from the Bible in Romans 12th chapter, “20 If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Now if God says to help your enemy, of whom is someone whom you do not like and they do not like you, what about the man or woman who is a stranger?

I have to help my fellow man with all that God has blessed me with by not allowing evil to overcome me.

Let me get back to my main point that there is a lot wrong with my country, and the Bible in 2 Timothy 3rd chapter says, “1 there will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

There is a lot wrong, but there is lot right with our country.

We have men and women who have joined the military, went to a foreign land to fight for the United States and come home with no legs, or an arm. They are treated like second-class citizens, they are not honored enough in my opinion, yet they strive to live a life of some normalcy despite their sufferings.

I thank God for each and every one of them, the service person that I know and the ones that I don’t know.

Then there are people who tirelessly work to take care of those that cannot help themselves. The doctors, nurses, emergency medical teams, the police officers, the politicians that hold the people he or she represents in high regard, looking to help his/her supporters and those who voted against him/her equally.

I thank God for each and every one of them, because they take their jobs seriously and do the work that I am unable to do.

I am so grateful to God for allowing me to be born into this world, for giving me a mother, Thelma L. Whitfield-Eley, who gave me positive reinforcement; teachers like Dorothy Edwards; and a principal like Ross Hines, who took the time to inspire me to do better.

There was Ron Solis who prepared me for military service and many others who made a difference for the better in my life.

Yes I am so thankful to my Father God, who allowed His only Son to become a sacrifice for my sin.

Evil abounds, and is in all of us the potential for good or evil is in all of us, and I refuse to be polarized to think that everything is wrong with this country, because there is good that exists and I praise My Father God for this.

The thanksgiving season is upon us, so let us give thanks for what the Lord has provided. We may not have all that we would like to have. We may have to eat beans right now, we may have to wear what we have been wearing for the past 20 years but it covers our nakedness, we might not be able to have the nicer car or home, but God has a provided shelter and a something that gets us from point A to point B.

Ephesians 5:20 says, “Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As you sit at the dining table on Thanksgiving and whether you have turkey and all the fixings, or hot dogs and pork and beans, be thankful for what the Lord has done by providing us all.

Happy Thanksgiving and may God richly bless you all!

DARNELL WHITFIELD is senior pastor of Diamond Grove Baptist Church in Franklin. Contact him at 742-1343 or revwhitfield@me.com.