I have been pondering on what it means to be blessed and how to see God's glory. It all started with something I read that alluded to the fact that the only reason we are blessed materially is to bless others and by doing that we show God's glory. While that can be true, the simplicity of this statement warns me of false conclusions about being blessed. We have so many material things here in the U.S. that quantifying blessings is the easiest way to know how blessed you are. Counting the things you own, the abilities you have, and your achievements, and then giving the glory to God seems like a nice formula for knowing how blessed you are and then putting it back on Him for allowing you to have them. Does that mean that the "have nots" are not blessed? Did God forget something by allowing some to have and some not? Or is the statement above about having to be able to give the reason to have? Part of my preoccupation stems from who blesses who? Do you have to have in order to give? Can the have nots be blessed to? Can they offer blessings? Just thinking about the disproportionate distribution of wealth worldwide puts a burden on those who have and know Jesus, to give. But I guess my problem is in keeping those who have as the perennial powerful subjects who rely on the notion that others will need them. The Bible reminds us to constantly look around and make sure we know who are oppressed so we don't allow that. God is concerned with the fatherless, the widow, and the foreigners over and over again. It is in the Psalms, Jeremiah, Isaiah, among other books of the Bible. It's a trilogy that represent the oppressed. They are not there to make others feel blessed, this is a consequence of the fault in this world and God chooses to make right a wrong through those who love Him. Something interesting about this trilogy is that it transcends material things. It is greatly associated in many cases to the lowest in a given society specially in the context in which it was written, but you don't have to be poor to suffer the rejection of the fatherless, or the loneliness of the widow or the displacement of a foreigner. So to know what it means to be blessed, I don't want to limit myself to all the material things that I can touch, and see or have done. I want to rely on what the Bible says in Ephesians 1: instead of being fatherless,the alternative is to be adopted, instead of being lonely, God offers redemption, instead of displacement, his glorious grace. Instead of oppression, we are His possession for His glory. This allows us to shine for Him but not because of the material goods we have but because of the Hope we find in our Lord Jesus. So what blessings can I expect to find in Haiti? I'm looking forward to the blessing you receive on a warm sunny morning when your feet touches the fresh dew, or you can smell it in the air, and the brightness of a starry night when it is so hot that you can't move. I'm hoping for a kind word, or a helping hand. How many of those can we get or give? I pray for for the blessing of feeling a gentle breeze or sitting under a shadowy tree. How many of those can I get? How many of those can I give? To be blessed happens only by grace. I don't want to miss my blessings and I don't want to miss how God has blessed us all. I want to be aware of how He's done it in Haiti and how He is doing it by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our brothers and sisters there. I want to see His glory in their faces, in their smiles, in their confidence. I don't want to pity anyone but me if I can't see God's glory and blessings in this trip.
By Dolly
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