Thursday, January 23, 2014

Blessed

Sometimes I think I should be doing more. I compare myself to my friends, who are doing really cool things - volunteering with local organizations, tutoring kids who have recently come to the US, running a community garden, teaching ESL, leading the youth group at my church. Comparatively, I'm doing next to nothing - no service, little connection with my neighbors and this neighborhood I love. I moved here to my neighborhood to be present with people and to serve, and I don't always feel like I'm doing that. 

Today in my small group we read through the Beatitudes, or the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5. As we were reading, verse 4 stuck out: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

Blessed. Blessed. Blessed are those who mourn

This tells me that I am blessed. I am mourning, so I am blessed. 

This makes me think that maybe mourning is just as important as doing cool things. Mourning is just as important to God as serving others - they both are a part of what being like Jesus looks like. 

And this tells me that the church should be a place where mourning is acceptable. The church should be a place where we're not afraid to talk about mourning, just like we're not afraid of talking about justice. 

I may still compare. I may still yearn for the day when I can be out there with my friends, tutoring kids and pulling weeds. But until that time comes I can follow Jesus best by mourning. May that mourning be a blessing to me, to my friends, and to my church community. May we teach one another to be more, act more like the Jesus we follow. 


1 comment:

  1. I read this blog around the time your mom was diagnosed; it is/was written by a family my sister knows. They lost their six-year-old to cancer a few years ago. The entire entry is completely heartbreaking/gut-wrenching/soul-shredding, but this is the part that your entry reminded me of:

    "As we calmed down and walked back to the car, I thought of a conversation I had a few weeks earlier with my friend Katie Levinger. She had told me that the pastor at their church had given a sermon about the original Hebrew meaning of the word "blessing". She explained that it wasn't what we thought of as the meaning of blessing today in modern times, that is a good thing. In fact, the original meaning was the complete opposite. It meant to be consecrated by God through great suffering. It was fitting that my entire life mantra, as long as I could remember, had been to suck up my sorrow and step toward blessing with a grateful heart. As I walked hand in hand with my parents and brother in the cold dark night, I felt so abandoned by God...... but the fact.....the truth......was that I was BLESSED!"

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