#blessed

I see a lot of these declarations in various forms all over Facebook. Usually referring to the healthy birth of a baby, a wedding, a fulfilling relationship; all of the things in life that we feel are wonderful gifts from God. And they are. But I have begun to wonder. What about babys born unhealthy (or not at all), a wedding that never happens, a relationship broken. Have you ever seen #blessed under a relationship status changed single? Or under a picture of a hurricane? Nope. For obvious reasons right? But that begs the question, why are some people “blessed” and others are not?

Disclaimer here. I am not out to get all you folks out there who feel so strongly blessed in some moments that you have to get it out there. In fact, I think it’s awesome to declare those moments when God’s presesence feels so overwhelmingly evident. It just makes me wonder about the times when we don’t feel his presence in such an evident way. We have begun referring to ourselves as blessed largely at times when we feel blessed.

What if we go through our whole entire lives without one “good” thing happening to us? I know that seems very unrealistic, but what if? Are we still “blessed”?  See, like with many situations here on earth, we believe something is true only if we feel it. For instance, “I feel God’s presence in this moment so he must be here, I don’t feel his presence in this moment so he is absent. I don’t feel like I love my husband anymore so I guess I don’t. Get the idea? If we feel it must be there, if we don’t it must not be.

I often wonder how the world would be a different place if we could really step out of believing feeling as truth. Could we feel blessed during tragedy? Wrapped in the warmth of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a natural disaster? Accepting our life as a blessing even when situations don’t feel that way?

 I’ll leave with this exercise: Try to think of one thing that doesn’t feel like a blessing but is.

I’ll go first… “I have to be moved out of my old apartment exactly 13 days before I can move into my new one. I am so blessed to have a place to stay in the meantime for free, with room for all of my junk that I’m bringing along.” The important thing to remember is that even If I didn’t have a place to stay and was homeless for the next 2 weeks, I would still be blessed. AMEN TO THAT!!!!!