I Could Elaborate, But I'll Just Ask
How much of what we call "blessing" is really just self-indulgence?
This question is not meant to be rhetorical. I'd like to hear your thoughts.
This question is not meant to be rhetorical. I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Labels: Faith
posted by 
at 1:50 PM
6 Comments:
You want a percentage? I think more than most of us would be willing to admit. I'll come back to this when I can think of some examples.
Oh, and feel free to explain the rocks cry out thing. I don't think I've ever heard a sermon on the topic.
Depends on what we call a blessing. I find it a huge blessing to walk out my front door and see flours, majestic mountains to the right and a beautiful lake to the left.
My husband has kidney failure, but we are blessed because he has survived numerous times when he should not have. He is still able to work, exercise and function almost completely normally. This is a blessing.
Despite our financial difficulties resulting from my husband's illness we are surrounded by the most amazing family and friends and are blessed in that.
So, I don't know. If something is good -- it's a blessing. If it's the fact that this hot fudge brownie sundae is the rockinest desert you've ever had . . . no, probably not.
Isn't it in your point of view? Or do you need to feel it's from a god? Being a non-believer I don't get that part. How much is your perception and how much is god? That'd be be my question.
Do I think it's the greatest thing to come together that I'm fianlly getting to school in a foreign country? YEAH. Does it suck huge ones that I have 4 times as much debt now than I did in June as I head off to a country where my work options are very limited? YEAH. Blessing, no. It's tough nuggets.
Is it way amazing that my best friend is the single best person on planet earth? Yeah...way. I have crap luck in my life...everything I have wanted or tried has, until now, fallen apart. That Jen has been there for all of my adult trials is the silver lining.
When Nana died I was thankful. Because I thought she was relieved of unnecessary pain she needn't have endured for our own selfishness. And given a little dignity -- something which really should not be a blessing but a right.
I feel fortunate to be able to take inspiration where I find it. Like I take yoga, which is technically a religious sutra but so what. I am working at acheiving better meditation. I've started reading Deepak Chopra and read a book by a christian author which helped give me a focus on a particular struggle. I'm blessed or just open?
But then I feel punished by other people who do not make responsible choices in their food, health products, home products....carelessness and laziness -- the kind that leads to personal or planetary disease is a perversion of whatever gift you feel has been bestowed. So I think how you honor the "blessings" in life matters more than where you find them.
I couldn't get this to load properly last night so I'm trying again. I think when God sees to it that we have something we need it's a blessing . . . thought we may not "like" it. When God withholds something we want, for whatever divine reason, that, too, is a blessing. But we're more apt to consider getting the things we want and not getting the things we don't want as blessings. If we had perfect wisdom, we'd have no trouble indentifying and defining blessings.
I'm not really sure what you mean by the question.
Are you thinking of those people who come into church proclaiming, "Oh what a blessing! I was able to buy a 52 inch plasma television!" or are you thinking of something not quite so dramatic?
I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom, and I feel that being able to be that kind of mom is a huge blessing to us. But in a way, isn't that self-indulgent as well? After all, I get to spend every day with my children, and I don't have to attend to the daily rigors of a 9 to 5 job like many moms do.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, my husband was laid off two years and a half years ago. It was scary and difficult, but it was a tremendous blessing. I could even see that at the time. His boss was demanding and hard to please, and it was seriously taking its toll on my husband. But when I see the path that it my husband on for the future, it's even easier to see what a blessing it was.
Did that answer the question? :) I'm not really sure since I didn't quite know what I was answering. LOL!
Well, I had a nice well thought out blog post in answer to this; but now that I see everyone else's response, I too wonder what you actually mean.
I personally think that in America the majority of us live self indugent lives when you compare how most of the rest of the world lives. Does it mean that we shouldn't have things that are considered luxuries? I don't think so. But this could be a really long thought process.
Good question!
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