I wrote this on Feb 10, 2019:
When people feel blessed, they usually say, “I must have done something good to deserve this.”
What about people who are down and trodden? Will they say, “I must have done something bad to deserve this”? Would someone in that situation say that? Maybe they will say, “What did I do to deserve this?”
This is the same when people say they are blessed when they are still alive the following morning. How about those who died or was not able to see the morning?
Do we say, “they are not blessed?”
Sometimes it can be offending when people claim something that is only favorable to them. Yes, those are just words but it doesn’t have to be used as if it is what it really meant.
This is just me, though.
*****
Dear Old Me,
Ah... Now I remember why I wrote this.
I was reacting to the way I sometimes heard people use the word *“blessed”—*as though good circumstances, or simply waking up the next morning, were proof that God had favored us.
At that time, that wording touched something very personal in me. Rey had already gone ahead of us, and I couldn't reconcile the idea that being alive the next morning was somehow the measure of God's blessing.
Looking back now, I realize I could have expressed my thought more carefully.
Of course, life is a gift. Of course, waking up to another day is something to be grateful for. But I don't believe God's blessing can be measured simply by whether life gives us what we hoped for—or even by whether we are given another morning.
Being blessed isn’t the same thing as having favorable circumstances.
Someone can have a terrible day and still be blessed.
Someone can lose someone they love and still be blessed.
Someone can die and still have lived a life held by God’s grace.
Someone can wake up to another morning and be grateful without implying that those who didn’t wake up were somehow less favored by God.
Rey’s death did not mean that he was less blessed. And my being here did not mean that I was more blessed.
I wasn’t trying to take away anyone’s gratitude. I was asking myself—and perhaps others—to be careful with how we define blessing.
And now, reading that last line, "This is just me, though," makes me smile. You were being careful.
No, old me. You weren't just being sensitive. You were speaking from experience. 💙
God's goodness isn't measured by who gets the next morning and who doesn't.
Maybe that was what I was trying to say back then. I just didn't have the words yet. 💙