Pastor Mike Nodland

Have you wondered where the worst places are to shop on Black Friday? Basically, they are any box store, shopping or over-retailed strip malls and discounters.

Yearly, Americans spend Thanksgiving Day gorging themselves on massive quantities of tryptophan, resulting in drowsiness, and the next day polar opposite of thanks, flocking to stores like fighting animals and trampling each other for the wildest junk. Here are just a few examples of this “gold rush”: a Nicolas Cage throws pillow, a frog urinal game, a troll headpiece for your canine, the three-dimensional writing pen, the hoodie that turns you into a unicorn or even a gel that makes you sweat like crazy during your workouts, called “Sweet Sweat!” Really?

Interestingly, historians link Black Friday’s origins to the stock market collapse of 1869, Macy’s 1924 Thanksgiving holiday shopping kickoff, and the Philadelphia streets congestion the Friday after Thanksgiving in the ’60s. I remember managing retail stores in the ’90s where my profit line turned from red to black on a good Black Friday, and early bird shoppers camped outside stores.

But the best Black Friday of all was the day Jesus Christ died for you and me on the Cross of Calvary for all our sins. That’s the real Thanksgiving! Catch that fever!

Mike Nodland, pastor

Christian Fellowship Church, Vining, IA