Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Unlikely Blessings

In Matthew 5:1-12, Jesus preaches the "Beatitudes", also known as the Sermon on the Mount. This is not his first preaching, but it is probably his most famous.

It is a daunting litany of the pathway to divine peace with God: Blessed are they who are poor in spirit [heartbroken], mournful, meek, hungering for righteousness [justice], persecuted, as when people insult you and falsely say evil against you because of Jesus. For all this, we are to rejoice and be glad!

Are you kidding me?!  How's that for toppling the world order? In a society where we worship powerful people who act out of narcissism, and who trample others on their way to the top, these attributes would seem to be a sure path to failure, if not mockery.

Christianity is one of the most established religions in the world. Who knew it could advocate such a radical philosophy?

Yet, when I was growing up, I discovered that the surest way to disarm hate, was to give the opposite, love. The surest way to counter strife was with peace. I was always the peacemaker and if it was not possible to make peace, I quietly walked away until the storm had passed.

Looking back, I see that I had few options to change my little world. But what I did choose -- love, peace, humility, hope, compassion , a constant striving for God-- were actually Weapons! They helped me to avoid a quicksand of greed, hate, despair, narcissism, and rejection of my faith.

In a word, adopting this philosophy of turning the tables helped me to survive!

And Jesus says that we are to rejoice and be glad, that "great is your reward in heaven." Many times, with all the pain and abuse and trauma in my life, I felt like,  'Waiting until I go to Heaven is an awful long time to wait for these rewards!'

My pastor had an answer to that. He said, Showing others mercy, justice, compassion, faith, hope, love, peace, are the surest ways to Heaven on Earth!

God, I pray that even in my darkets moments, I am a source of Blessings to others!

(c) The Spiritual Devotional 2011. All Rights Reserved.

No comments:

Post a Comment