If I said to you, “I’m really blessed,” what would you think?

That I got a raise?

That my family and I are enjoying good health?

That my child earned straight “A’s”?

What if I said, “I’m out of options. I have nowhere else to turn. God is all I’ve got left. I sure am blessed.”

Or, “I just lost my dad after his battle with leukemia. I’m really blessed.”

Would it sound genuine to you? I don’t think it would to me. We don’t think that way. Blessing means more money, so we can buy more stuff and be more comfortable. Isn’t that the way we think? Be honest.

And yet Jesus said, “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule. You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. You’re blessed when you get your inside world–your mind and heart–put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.” (Matthew 5 from The Message)

Everything with Jesus seems upside down and inside out. It’s an entirely different way of living and looking at life. Jesus says things that make no sense to me. There are things He says I’d rather skip over.

Blessed (happy) when I’m at the end of my rope? When I’ve lost what is most dear to me? Really?

Only if He is my life. Only if I see anything that drives me to Him as a blessing. Only if my eyes are on eternity instead of what I can grab now in this material, soon-to-be-over life.

How are you defining blessing?