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HILE ON A RECENT visit, a friend from Lithuania inquired, "What are Americans so angry about?" As an American, I had neither pondered nor been confronted with that question before.

Yet at this season of the year, it is a question that begs for an answer. How is it that so few Americans are thankful for the bounty most enjoy?

The statistics identify how much better the typical family is compared with 40 years ago. The median income is 32 percent higher for the average family when adjusted for inflation. As a result of rapidly increasing real estate values, the typical American household has a net worth of $465,970--up 83 percent from 1965; 60 percent from 1985; and 35 percent from 1995.

In addition, airline travel is much less expensive--and technological progress has provided such gadgets as DVD players, computers, and Ipods at low and lower prices.

Materially, life is easy compared with a generation ago.

Yet in spite of material blessings, Americans seem to complain--a lot. Nearly half believe they are worse off than their parents. Two-thirds nostalgically believe the "good old days" between 1950 and 1980 were better than today.

Most are fearful for their children's future.

What is the root of such dissatisfaction and anxiety? Most Americans do not look at their situation and compare it with their parents' situation. They compare their situation with where they "expected to be."

Their standards for success are people they admire or aspire to be.

Such comparisons leave people frustrated. People have more and more choices and opportunities, but continually feel that they have made the wrong choices or are frustrated because they had to make a choice. After all, don't we deserve it all?

More choices mean more things to give up. Americans are not very good at sacrificing, even if it is sacrificing a luxury. What other reason could there be for failing to save anything for the future? Actually, the savings rate of the average person is a negative number--meaning that more money is taken from savings than is added.

All of these numbers indicate that happiness and contentment are not determined by material things, but are matters of the soul. Comparison with others is a certain path to discontentment and loneliness.

Evaluating our circumstances in purely material ways leaves us alone in a mechanistic world.

Is our world merely mechanical? Is there not a personal purpose and direction given to our lives by one who provides for us? After all, in order to be thankful, there must be someone to thank--otherwise our gratitude is focused on congratulating ourselves for our diligence, hard work, and effort.

No wonder our thanks ring hollow in our own ears.

Is there anyone in control of our lives, our nation, and our world? We are aware that the conditions of this country are, essentially, incredibly safe. The possible disasters that could happen are very few. As a consequence, our world functions in sufficient peace to enable us to prosper.

As bad as world events can be, they are definitely not as bad as they could be--and Americans benefit from the stability and harmony of a nation that enables so many to prosper.

Is our stability attributable merely to presidents or government agencies, or, on the other hand, are the painful events of life fully attributable to government neglect or mismanagement?

Or is there a person greater than our government and all the governments on earth who has bountifully blessed us?

If there is such a person (dare we say a creator and sustainer of our universe?), then we ultimately have that person to thank (or blame) for our position in this world. Our restless hearts have someone to please other than ourselves. We are no longer the measure of our happiness; nor is our happiness simply in pleasing family members or friends who change from time to time and can leave us perplexed as to what really pleases them.

The issue of thanks is the question--to whom are we to owe such thanks?

True, painful events take place in our personal, as well as our collective, world. Are we not rightly angered by such events? May such a person who is creator and sustainer also deserve our scorn and resentment?

But what if even the painful, undeserved events of our lives actually serve a higher end that is beyond our view? What if the creator actually has paid the highest price of all for the evils in this world by becoming part of the created order and taking that evil on himself?

If somehow the creator endured such scorn and hatred on this earth so that there is a higher purpose to the misery and suffering in this life, then wouldn't such a person be deserving of the highest thanks and praise?

Ultimately. true happiness and well-being would flow from giving proper thanks and gratitude to such a personal being. The dissatisfaction and anger Americans feel, and the anxiety for the future, is that life is without a personal face--and as a result life becomes purposeless and meaningless.

Happiness is only for momentary pleasures--and deeper satisfaction slips through our fingers.

An ancient songwriter wrote, "It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O most high."

Giving thanks to this one "on high" transforms our lives from cynicism, drudgery, and anxiety to a life of joy under the watchful eye of a father who provides our daily bread.

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