As the American holiday of Thanksgiving approaches (this year, Thanksgiving is on November 27th), I have been meditating on thankfulness in the life of an Alongsider. There are many specific experiences, not all necessarily unique to us Alongsiders but all significant, for which we can be thankful. Here are three reasons for gratitude that I have been considering this year:
1. Gratitude for God’s leading in our lives to draw us into relationships with both Himself and Hindu communities.
Every disciple of Jesus has the overwhelming blessing of living as a son or daughter of God and co-heir with Christ. In a world marred by the destruction and pain of sin and the fall, we who are in Christ have been chosen to experience the true life of knowing God. As Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent,” (John 17:3). We are made to know God, and the truth that we live in this reality both transcends and grounds the many other blessings we have in this life.
H. L. Richard charged us to think carefully about our own lives, remarking that our lives “are covered over with the grace and goodness of God.”
At the closing of the 2025 Rethinking Forum, H. L. Richard shared a pastoral thought with those gathered. He charged us to think carefully about our own lives, remarking that our lives “are covered over with the grace and goodness of God.” He went on to share that we are a privileged few who, in all global church history, have the opportunity to interact with Hindu people. Only in the last sixty years have Hindu people significantly emigrated to the US, where many of our MARG Network audience lives. So very few expatriates have ever lived in India. Indian Christians over the centuries have often, though certainly not exclusively, lived in tight-knit communities of their own with limited interactions with Hindu people. We are blessed to have friendships with Hindu colleagues, neighbors, and classmates. Our Hindu friends, and the experiences we have through our relationships with Hindu people, all represent a sweet opportunity given to us by God for which we can be thankful.
2. Gratitude in response to God’s direct involvement in our lives and in the lives of our Hindu friends.
As we Alongsiders then seek to show and share Jesus’s goodness with Hindu people, many of us try to do so by helping Hindu people experience Jesus. This is because the wise Alongsider understands the importance of divine experience (the Sanskrit word, “anubhav”, is sometimes used by our community) in how Hindu people perceive and relate to God in this world. Prayer or times of worship are two main ways that Alongsiders often try to facilitate these anubhav moments. As an example, when Alongsiders and Hindus pray together about a need, frequently God chooses to directly answer these prayers offered in Jesus’s name. Hindu people understand that the blessing they have received has come from Jesus. Wonderful! But, now what?
For the Hindu person, receiving a gift from God, such as an answered prayer, prompts within them a desire to respond. I have been repeatedly asked by my Hindu friends, “What should I do to thank Jesus for this gift that I know He has given me? What should I do?” Choosing to respond to God’s grace through heartfelt thanksgiving and worship is very appropriate. Affirm to your Hindu friend that this is a good idea!
Often your Hindu friend might feel that the correct way to respond is through some type of Jesus-focused thanksgiving or worship ritual. In fact, you may be asked, as a devotee of Jesus yourself, how they should do this! Similarly, many Hindu people who visit a Christian church for prayer will return to that same church in a display of gratitude for receiving the answer to their petition. The desire to respond to God’s grace in our lives is obviously a biblical response (Luke 17:11-19). Importantly, the Hindu desire to thank God provides an expanded opportunity to communicate and clarify the gospel message of Jesus, not in a triumphalist way, but in an earnest and sincere way to explain more clearly why the Lord Jesus has chosen to help a Hindu family who may not otherwise be connected to Him in any way.
I enjoy taking a moment at this time of year to remember the ways that God has been directly involved in both my life and the life of my family, and in the lives of our Hindu friends. The common Hindu urge to have a time of thanksgiving to God is deeply commendable. It is a pattern I’ve been learning to incorporate into my own life.
3. Gratitude for the trust and hospitality shown to us by our Hindu friends.
Across the large swath of Alongsider relationships, it is vastly more common that the Alongsider takes the role of guest, welcomed by the Hindu host into the Hindu world, rather than the reverse. It is far more common that the Alongsider is served chai or biryani or dosa (and sometimes all three!), rather than we Alongsiders serving the Hindu a Pepsi or a sandwich or a casserole. Many of us have been shown kindness, concern, and warmth by not only our Hindu friend but also by their parents, their children, and their neighbors. As an example, my eldest son was given three literal silver spoons after his birth, all sent to us by overseas relatives of three local Hindu friends! As guests, as Alongsiders, we have no right to demand to be received or accepted or valued. Yet, so very often, we can become dear friends with Hindu people because of their own large-heartedness and willingness to relate with us. What a sweet blessing that is!
As guests, as Alongsiders, we have no right to demand to be received or accepted or valued. Yet, so very often, we can become dear friends with Hindu people because of their own large-heartedness and willingness to relate with us.
This Thanksgiving, I hope that you can take a moment to express your gratitude to God for what He has done in your life. As H. L. Richard shared, for all of us, “our lives are covered over with the grace and goodness of God.”
