The Blessed Road Less Traveled

I would like to take a quick look at a word that people use all the time (Christians and non-Christians). That is the word blessing. Now, most people have no issue with the word in itself, and most often use it to describe things conducive to happiness and welfare. I received a raise, "What a blessing."  I have a wonderful family, I am so blessed. I am blessed to be able to fish all weekend. You get the point. Now, I don't mean to demean this definition of blessing, because even scripture uses happiness and blessedness synonymously in some instances. But to fully understand scripture's use of blessed, we must take a different road. 

The ‘blessed road less traveled' teaches that a blessing is anything that drives us closer to God and strengthens our faith in Christ. Christ didn't say, "Blessed are the rich," (even non-Christians laugh at this notion), but, "Blessed are the Poor in Spirit." Now, as many commentators agree, the poor in spirit include the dispossessed and abandoned people in our midst but contains a larger audience, generally referring to individuals who realize that they have nothing to offer God in the form of spiritual requirements to achieve righteousness.

Namely, that we don't deserve God's grace and we can't earn it. When you read through the beatitudes in Matthew 5 you realize that the blessings of Jesus are given at the beginning of the sermon and are given to those who have done nothing to deserve them. Can God be found in prosperity and ‘earthly' blessings? I don't know – I'll let you know if we meet in heaven.

I do know however that I don't desire pain for you or for myself (and I really want to stress that I don't want any more pain than I currently have). However…as my Grandfather used to say, "Life ain't about what you want." We don't seek out pain, but maybe the blessings we are missing (namely the connection to Christ) are because we have taken great efforts to equate all blessing (from God and man) with earthly happiness and to avoid pain and suffering at all costs.