HOW WILL YOU EXPRESS YOUR THANKS?
John Brooks Fuqua was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia and raised on a small tobacco farm. His family struggled in the lean times following World War I and barely survived. J. B. Had a dream of a career in radio, but in order for a person to make it in that world, he needed an education and money was too scarce for his family to afford to send him to college.
However, Duke University and a lending program where people could check out library books by mail. J. B. began sending off for books on radio and communication, business, finance, and banking. He read everything he could get his hands on, and taught himself everything he possibly could about the radio business at that time.
With this knowledge, J. B. was able to get started in the radio business and opened his own station in Augusta, Georgia. Soon, he added a second station. He began investing his money and he eventually developed a major corporation known as Fuqua Industries. He also served in the Georgia House of Representatives. By 1970, Fuqua Industries was recognized as a Fortune 500 company.
J. B. never forgot Duke University's help in those early and difficult times. Over the years, he made several generous donations to the University in gratitude for what they had done for him. In 1980, he made a generous donation valued at over $40 million. He also convinced a good friend, Dave Thomas of Wendy's fame, to contribute another $4 million to the school.
Today, if you visit the campus of Duke University, you will notice their business school is named the Fuqua School of Business. (J. B. never graduated from college but was awarded an honorary doctorate from Duke.) No one at Duke University could have known all those years ago, that their decision to set up a simple lending program to help people learn and improve their education would have such an impact on someone's life. And they never would have guessed how that kind gesture on one person would ever have repaid.
J. B. Fuqua was truly grateful for Duke University. When you're genuinely thankful for something or someone, you want to do something in return to express their gratitude. A story in the Gospel of Luke tells us about Jesus healing ten people suffering from the disease of leprosy. Yet, out of the ten, only one returned back to Jesus to say "thank you" for the blessing of new life. I wonder too, if out of his gratitude, he did not do something worthwhile from that day forward with his life.
Only one of ten came back and offered any thanks. How about you and me? Are we truly grateful this day? Were we doing in return? Each of us must answer the question for ourselves: "Would I have been the one to return to give thanks?" Perhaps we can never know for sure. But there is one thing we can do. Each and every day we can lift up the simple prayer: "Of all the things I ask this day, O Lord, give to me the gift of a thankful heart." And let us live each day gratefully.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Jeff