Ah, this is a favorite topic of Kate Bowler's - something she has written about before. Railed against, you might even say. (I think she would, at least!)
We tend to add the #blessed hashtag to the good things in our lives: the perfect pictures on social media or when we (not so) casually mention our promotion at work.
Since we're 21 entries in, I'm guessing that you've noticed the entries all include a blessing of one sort or another. And often, those are the parts of the chapter I love the most. In the video promo for this "Good Enough" book, I think she even mentions something about believing in blessing the crap out of everyone.
And she really means that with all her heart ... but not in the "partially nude bikini shot" or "Christmas card professional photo shoot where everyone is looking directly at the camera wearing matching chambray tops" kind of way (p 122).
When she says #blessed, she means it the way Jesus uses that word:
- Blessed are you when you are at the end of your rope.
- When you are exhausted and despairing.
- When tears are your food, morning and night.
- When your stomach grumbles and your mouth is dry.
- Bless are you who forgives the person who never said sorry and who definitely didn't deserve your forgiveness.
- You who are ridiculed and humiliated, left out and left behind. The timid and the soft-spoken. The one who works toward peace instead of the easy road of vengeance. (p 122)
(You can read Jesus' exact words here in Matthew 5.)
Kate and Jessica write, "These beatitudes should make us uncomfortable. Because God is celebrating who we try so hard not to be. Dependent. Needy. Desperate" (p 123).
These words are not for the folks who are "succeeding" at life. That's not who Jesus was talking to.
"He was looking into the eyes of those who felt like the misfits. And then used everyday experiences of weeping, hungering, thirsting, suffering as a badge of belonging" (p 124).
In an interesting moment of serendipity, I am 98% of the way through a novel (audiobook, for the record) that is told from the perspective of someone who feels very out of place among her friends, as she looks at their perfect lives that seem to have turned out the exact way they expected whilst wondering where she has gone wrong because NOTHING in her life had turned out the way she expected.
Spoiler alert: it turns out no one's life turns out the way they expected. And while they may not say it out loud, no one really thinks they have it all together.
Spoiler alert for the book, I mean, ... but maybe also for real life too.
The longer I listen to the book, the more I want to slide into Kate Bowler's DMs to recommend it to her! I think she would love it - it's a beautiful if profanity-laden meditation (and I'm using that word loosely!) on the reality of life and when you feel like a misfit and how beautiful and raw and honest conversations can connect you to another human being unlike almost anything else. I have chuckled out loud numerous times as I've listened while doing my dishes but also (carefully) wiped my eyes as they filled up with tears.
The left out will be welcomed with a warm embrace. The forgotten will not just be remembered but honored. The ones who don't have it all together are exactly who God is inviting into the kingdom. In fact, the whole kingdom belongs to the ones on the edges. This is the upside-down kingdom - directly available to those of us who don't have it all together (p 124).
Blessed are we. The imperfect and don't-have-it-all-together. God's beloved.
Pastor Allison
I'm curious:
Maybe go back and re-read "A Blessing for When You Don't Feel #blessed" again (pp 125-126). Are these words you need to hear? Are they words someone else needs to hear? I think twice now I've sent pieces of the blessings from this book to those who are struggling. Maybe share a paragraph or two from this one with someone. Or, maybe get them their own copy of this book!
I love this snippet from the Madeleine L'Engle quote on p. 127: "I have suggested that it is a good practice to believe in size impossible things every morning before breakfast, like the White Queen in Through the Looking Glass. It is also salutary to bless six people I don't like much every morning before breakfast."
Jessica and Kate write: "Your turn. Think of six people you don't like very much. I certainly didn't have to look too far. Bless them. Even ... especially ... if you don't want to" (p 127).
