In my last post, I wondered if happiness comes from giving or holding back. My perspective in that post was a worldy one. And I think I got some consensus that putting yourself out there, and givng and caring, you put yourself at risk of getting hurt. So should you still continue to give and love and care?
I found the answer over the weekend, while reading the book Mocha on the Mount for the Soul Per Suit an online Bible study recommended by LL Barkat. Mocha on the Mount is based on Jesus' teachings in His sermon on the mount, the "Blessed are the. . ." part of the Bible. The author, Sandra Glahn, distinguishes between happiness and blessing. Here is what caught my attention:
"Happiness depends on external circumstances--I got a new job, I got engaged, my relationships are going well. But blessing depends on being rightly related to God despite external circumstances. Horatio Spafford, though his daughters had just drowned in a boating accident, was still able to write, "It is well with my soul." I seriously doubt he felt happy. Yet he knew he was blessed. Lady Juliana of Norwich, writing in the fourteenth century, said, "All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.
"Jesus' message would never fly on Madison Avenue. Sigh up for the Christian life. Come, be poor and mourn and die!"
The author goes on to quote Ken Gire in The Reflective Life, who confesses that he wants to be like Christ in His glory, not Christ when he was hated, disgraced and spat on.
And as I thought more about this, I realized that my answer had been within my post, when I wrote that the world rejected and scoffed at Christ 2000 years ago.
Happiness in this world might require less love and caring, and more isolation and selfishness, but blessedness requires the opposite. I'm not saying that only in suffering and rejection do we find blessing--God absolutely rejoices in our happiness. But living by God's heart sometimes means loving and caring and giving even when we don't get much in return.
We still need to guard our hearts, and know when to step away and when there's nothing more we can do in a situation--after all, Christ calls us to love others AS we love ourselves. And, as a Christian, I realized that that is my part, and that is what I need to try my best to do--even if I don't always get the same in return.
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7 comments:
Yikes. I'm going to have think about this one. Look at you trying to one-up me by bringing in new terms like "Blessed."
Are you blessed?
Your post brought me both happiness and joy. Thanks. :)
Nice thoughts - good post.
-santoh
Recently, I was thinking on the term "blessed." I realized that to be "blessed" was not necessarily to receive "good things." Rather, it is to be shown grace and truth together. (I was musing based on the OT blessings from fathers to sons... some were not at all what we would think of as blessings!).
Anyway, so we are blessed. For Christ came from the father "full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) The question this left me with was, how, then, am I to be a blessing to others?
Am I blessed? In the way most people think about blessing, absolutely. In the way Jesus describes it in the Sermon, probably not. I think I've a pretty good life (despite all my whining :S).
And how are we to be a blessing to others? That's something to ponder. Although, I suppose, a start is to extend Christ's grace and truth to others, even when we don't get the same back(both the "good things" and what doesn't seem so good).
Hello!
How is the job going? I hope you are enjoying it!
Monday tomorrow..BBooooooooooooo
Back to work .. Bigger BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I especially like your thought about how we need to keep giving grace and truth even when it doesn't come back to us. In this way, we surely follow Christ ...for how many give back to him, in gratitude and commitment, or even in truth about our hearts?
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