A few months ago I looked around the room at my church and I saw a group of hurting people. Some of us had obvious physical ailments, others carried emotional wounds and a precious few limped around with both. I thought for such a small group, around 50, we sure do have a ton of pain happening at the moment.
And then I thought about who Jesus named as blessed:
The poor in spirit
Those who mourn
The meek
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
The merciful
The pure in heart
The peacemakers
Those persecuted because of righteousness
I venture to say that many of us don’t aspire to be the people on this list because, when we stop and really examine it, most of this list is just plain HARD.
It’s a wonder that at our most human, when it is impossible to do it all on our own, we are blessed.
For a fantastic essay on the misuse of the word blessed, check out Scott Dannemiller’s, The One Thing Christians Should Stop Saying: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-dannemiller/christians-should-stop-saying_b_4868963.html
Alyssa Sellers 
October 16, 2014 at 10:46 PM
Thanks for writing this and sharing that link, Alyssa. This is a topic that I’ve been thinking about a lot this last year. (Especially after a fellow christian told my husband that he shouldn’t be in ministry because he didn’t make enough money.) *sigh* Where did we go wrong?
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February 21, 2015 at 12:11 PM
Thanks for being a faithful reader, commenter and encourager, Jackie! To this comment, so true…humans…we mess stuff up all the time.
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