Are You Blessed?

Blessed: The One Way Street of God’s Grace


By vorjack on October 7, 2011 in Christianity. From the blog Unreasonable Faith.

The following is a guest post submitted by Nathan Moore, a Liberal Arts major whose academic focus is on the study of religion. He has submitted this piece about “the lack of social awareness that the “blessed” possess, and the trivial nature of a God who chooses to shower his praise on select individuals.”

How many times does one hear the phrase, “I’d like to thank God…” at a movie or music award show? Well, from watching the 2011 MTV VMA’s I can testify that 95% of the musicians first thanked God, then their fans, if they thanked their fans at all. Youngster Justin Bieber even spilled over into a religious lecture that consumed most of his time at the podium. We hear it all the time. Our friends and family members say, “Oh I’m so blessed,” for many different reasons. For some it’s having a good time, staying healthy, becoming wealthy, or something as simple as a sunny day when the forecast called for rain. To be blessed, it seems, is a state of being that can range over a whole host of human emotions, anticipations, wishes, and desires. But if we stop and think for just one second, we realize just how narcissistic and egocentric being blessed really is.

When actors and musicians receive awards and spend most of their time thanking God for how blessed they are, no one really thinks about what is actually being said, or the implications it has for the character of God. For a moment let’s go back to the beginning of Christianity. Any student of religion knows that one cannot discuss the content of a religion without taking into account the environment it was born in, and the people who bred it. In the case of Christianity, we cannot understand the religion unless we look at what it was opposing; the Roman empire, a greedy, rich, and indulgent society. Christianity was the poor man’s answer to the tyranny of Rome. Jesus said the poor would inherit the eternal kingdom, and it would be very hard for a rich man to get into heaven. Now let’s fast forward to the 2011 VMA’s. We have extravagantly rich celebrities thanking God (The Christian God), for their wealth and success. A caveat to this circus would be that the majority of the music and movies these blessed celebrities are associated with go completely against the “word” of God, morality, or anything associated with the 2,000 year history of Christianity. But yet people still clap. We all still watch and gawk. Nobody thinks twice about it. He’s blessed. She’s blessed. I guess the people watching the TV are just blessed in a different way.

One of the most common blessings people shower on themselves is good health. We pray for it. When we get it, we’re blessed. When we don’t, God has a plan. But just stop to think about what is actually being said. A woman dodges a disease and says, “Oh thank you Lord. I am so blessed.” What about the woman in the room next to you that didn’t dodge the disease and died a slow death? Why didn’t God bless her? If one is supposed to look at God as some sort of parent (he is called Father), then one has to wonder what kind of parent would give one child everything, and another child nothing. While Justin Bieber is thanking God for a plastic award, a child dies of starvation. While a woman thanks God for her health, thousands die a day because they can’t get clean drinking water. When you think about being blessed like this, you can see just how small-minded and egocentric it is. We no longer live tucked away in our separate corners of the world. We live in a global society. Therefore, we must expand our consciousness beyond ourselves, our families, and our countries, to encompass all of the people in the world; all of life on the planet.

The blessed not only make God look like a petty, vindictive, and cruel magician, they widen the gap between different cultures with different religious beliefs. On the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, President Obama continually quoted the Bible and said, “God is our strength and refuge,” and “God will protect and bless America.” Now let’s stop to think about the implications of these statements. So if God blesses America, and we are at war with people who believe God blesses their country, then we either have two gods, one right God, one wrong God, or no God at all. To continue to think that God actually takes sides, or that an entire country could be “wrong” in their beliefs, will only add to the violence and mayhem of war and religious intolerance. Once again, just look at the principles of Christianity and then look at American society today, and you’ll have to wonder, why would the Christian God ever bless or condone what we do. I’m sure Jesus would be totally cool with the term “justified war.” Even though the 10 commandments say thou shall not kill, I’m sure God would give the OK for all the executions committed by the state and military. I’m sure Jesus would be happy with Wall Street, and agree with how America treats its and homeless….yeah right. Hardly anything reflects the values of Jesus or Christianity in this country. We’re almost back to the decadence of Rome, if we haven’t already surpassed it. God Bless America….don’t make me laugh.

The next time you hear someone say they are blessed, stop to think about the broader implications of their statements. You’ll often find that the “blessed” philosophy and life outlook is one of no introspection or social awareness. How can one think that there is a supreme consciousness or Creator who operates on such a small level as to care about the daily happenings of “blessed” individuals in the vastness of the cosmos? It can be a scary thought, the vastness of the Universe; but as Carl Sagan said, the vastness of the cosmos can only be conquered by love. Not the love of a God who blesses one of his children and condemns another. Not the love of a God who would take sides in a war. This love can only be found within us. It can only grow when we drop the “blessed” act and start looking around at what is really happening in the world. People need help, and because of the way the world is they can’t get it. Don’t you think that fighting for a world where no one goes hungry, lives in poverty, or is abused, is a more worthy fight than the one we are engaged in right now?

Just listen.
Just think.

When someone says they are blessed, what are they really saying?