A Blessed Life

If you’re a regular follower of this blog, you know that I love to write about my trips to Haiti.  Haiti has been such a spiritually pivotal place for me over the past couple years that I it just bleeds out of me in my writing and even more so in the conversations I have with interested people.  I love to tell people the stories of things I’ve experienced and show them the some of the 1000s of pictures I’ve taken there. 

Because Haiti is so poor (poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere), the subject of poverty is always one of the central themes of any Haiti conversation and I’ve found that people typically respond in two ways.  First, they ask, “So, is it getting any better there?”  It’s a great question because we’ve all heard about the news of devastation with the 2010 earthquake and the hurricanes that consistently pummel that island.  But my answer usually surprises them as I explain that Haiti has been poor and devastated for many, many years.  The natural disasters have just taken their poverty to a deeper level.  It’s an intense place with intense heat, intense weather, intense noise, intense political corruption, and intense poverty.  It’s been that way for a long time and will continue to be.

But there’s another response that I hear from folks that’s really gotten me to think.  I often hear someone say this usually after seeing a picture of a half-naked child or someone’s tin shack home, “Wow, we sure are blessed here in America.  Sure makes you more grateful for what we have when you see how other’s around the world live, doesn’t it?”  Now, I want to be careful here as I don’t want to sound pious or to dishonor anyone who has ever said.  It’s true, we are blessed and we should be thankful for the things we have.  But, I’m beginning to understand that there may be a better way to respond to seeing poverty.  Hear me out with these three thoughts. 

1.       Perhaps gratitude should not come from comparing my situation to someone who has less than me.  We’d agree that it’s wrong to complain about your status when you look up the economic ladder and see someone with more than you.  Comparing with people who have more leads to discontent.  Agreed?  So why is it right for me to gain gratitude from comparing my status to someone with less?  It feels to me that when we do this we gain gratitude from pity.  Ouch… that’s a bit strong isn’t it?  But, think about it for a minute.

2.       Gratitude comes by recognizing that everything you have is a special gift from the God of the Universe who gives good gifts to his kids.  If I recognize God’s gracious provision for my life, then I can better accept what I have and what I don’t have.  I can look at all the things I lack and recognize them as things God is withholding from me through his infinite, all-knowing wisdom.  I grow content in God’s unique provision and withholding because I trust him.  What others have and don’t have plays less into the equation of gratitude.  I’m grateful and content because I trust that God loves me and he is wise.  A response to God’s love is being content in his provision.

3.       The best response I can offer when I see someone with much less than me is compassion.  My abundance becomes a resource for the love of God to be expressed in a tangible manner.  I can freely give from the good gifts that God has given me because I recognize them as resources that were perhaps given to me to pass on with a heart of love and compassion for others. 

I love this simple phrase that I hear from time to time at Ada Bible Church, “We are blessed to be a blessing.”  Psalm 112 echoes this principle loudly.  Read this song and look for the answers to the questions;

·         What does a blessed life look like?

·         Where does God’s blessing come?

·         What’s should be our response to his favor and abundant gifts to us?

·         What’s the alternative to a blessed life?

·         What’s a life that truly matters? 

Praise the Lord.

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who finds great delight in his commands.

His children will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.
 Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
who conducts his affairs with justice.
 Surely he will never be shaken;
a righteous man will be remembered forever.
 He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
 His heart is secure, he will have no fear;
in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
 He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor,
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn will be lifted high in honor.

The wicked man will see and be vexed,
he will gnash his teeth and waste away;
the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.  

                                                            Psalm 112