Saturday, October 1, 2011

Holding Fast and Pressing on While Learning to be Blessed

     As I get older my perspective on things has changed.  When I was young justice, compassion, and making everyone feel loved and cared for was of great priority to me. I wanted deep, meaningful, “there for you through thick and thin” relationships.   I would get so frustrated when I would see people treating one another unfairly.  As I have experienced life, I see that God does not let us remain in innocence and idealism.  He makes us aware of humanity as he sees it.  He does not strip this innocent idealism from us to be mean but to give us an accurate perspective of the world and why He sent His son.  He wants us to have an accurate perspective of the world so we can better understand who He is and His love for us and so we can realistically love others.  He wants us to be blessed. 

     Let me explain a bit.  I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) and Jesus is telling us who is going to be blessed and why.  To be blessed it so be fully satisfied in the spiritual realm.  It is an inner contentment that does not depend on our circumstances.  Many of the groups of people Christ says are blessed are groups to which we really do not want to belong.  What is more do we realize when we say, “God Bless you,” we are in reality saying become poor in spirit, mourn, be meek and submit to authority, be hungry and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, be pure in heart, be peacemakers and be persecuted, insulted and reviled.  I believe if people know that is what they were wishing on others they would be more cautious with that phrase and if those being blessed know what was being asked of them they might just punch us in the nose. 

     God has peeled away layer by layer the idealism I started life with.  I did not live in a place where I was content or blessed because I was certain if people saw the world the way I did there would be less problems.  At times I took it upon myself to correct others mistaken positions and this did not turn out well for anyone.  God has shown me that the world is not ideal and apart from Him it won’t be.  When we see or experience abuse, poverty, and injustice; see or experience the consequences of divorce, crime, and ignorance; or see or experience the hurt we humans can inflict on one another both physically and emotionally we begin to see others as God does.  God sees us in all our bad behavior and pain and chooses to love us anyway.  Seeing this has shown me that I am not the answer the above problems.  I am only an instrument to be used by God…His way, not mine… to achieve the outcome He has chosen.  That means that I must put my ideals aside and trust in God if I am to be blessed.  I must choose to trust God and love humanity at its worst if I am going to truly reflect the mind and heart of Christ.  I am blessed or spiritually satisfied when I trust that the situation a person is in is not defined by me, solved by me, or has anything to do with me.  I am to trust that even in the difficult things God works all things to His glory and our good. 

Holding Fast and Pressing On,
Teresa 

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