Blessing #1000

#1000 - Learning from counting blessings

One thousand blessings...

Over the past couple years I have attempted to identify, and count, one thousand blessings. It has been an interesting process and I have learned a few things along the way - a few things about myself I'm not real fond of, as well as some things about blessings, or what we tend to call blessings, themselves. Here area few of the things I have learned.

• I should have reached one thousand blessings much sooner. I have come to realize how often I blow through my day without any regard for the multitude of blessings that God is constantly pouring out on me. The mere fact that I need to expend effort trying to find blessings in my day, speaks volumes about my lack of gratitude and my insensitivity to God working around me. If I truly counted every single blessing, every day, I would reach one thousand within a week, maybe sooner. Counting blessings has opened my eyes to how many blessings I often miss, because I am not paying attention. It didn’t change the way I counted blessings on my blog, but it changed the way I counted blessings in my heart.

• Many blessings are repeated. Some blessings are repeated often. I tried not to list these blessings more than once, but maybe that was a mistake. When blessings are repeated, we tend to stop seeing them as blessings. I have many problems when it comes to having a grateful attitude, but part of my problem is looking past blessings because they have become “normal” and expected. The more often I receive the same blessing, the more likely I am to take it for granted and stop recognizing it as a blessing. I believe this is a common problem for those of us that live in the wealth, safety, and security of the United States of America. Many of us have come to expect God to deliver blessings, just because he has delivered them in the past. That seems like a dangerous place to live, to expect things from God despite our own lack of gratitude or to expect them just because of where we live or because we think we are “good.” It causes us to view blessings as “rights” rather than gifts freely given to us, undeserving people.

• Blessings are not so easy to define. Many things I count as blessings, are things that I am thankful for, or they are things that I wanted that I got, or they are hopes I had that came to fruition. But, as I made my way through this process, I began to wonder how many of those are really blessings, and how many blessings I missed because I was so focused on counting the things that I liked. We often talk about living in the United States, where we have so much freedom, so much wealth, so much safety and security, as a blessing, but I have found myself wondering if living in the United States is sometimes a curse. Having so much seems to make us less dependent on God. It decreases are sensitivity to him. It makes us weak and less courageous. It makes us soft. It makes our faith shallow, tenuous, and self-centered. So, is having more a blessing or is having less?

• Many blessing are not what we want. Often, when we get what we ask for, we consider it a blessing (or an answer to prayer) and when we don’t get what we want or get something different that we didn’t want, well, we just don’t talk about it. Most of the blessings that I counted were things that I liked or wanted. Those are relatively easy to count. But as time went on, I began to see things that I didn’t want and didn’t like, initially, as blessings. We would never hope for a tree to come crashing through our home in the midst of a storm, but it did. At the time it did not seem like a blessing, but, in the months that followed, we learned some things about ourselves and the people around us, both good and bad. We developed some patience, some endurance, some flexibility, some grace, some gratitude and probably some other things, that would not have grown in us had we survived the storm unscathed. I have an ongoing battle with migraines. Most of the time they are relatively minor and quite manageable, but occasionally one will hit me like a truck. It was a massive migraine that sharpened my focus on God, just when I needed it, in a way that would not have happened if I was feeling well. When it happened, it seemed like horrible timing to me, but in retrospect, the timing was perfect and the migraine was blessing, even though it was not what I wanted. Over the past couple of years, those kinds of examples are numerous, and I am learning to see those kinds of blessings better and more willingly accept them as blessings.

• I am not done counting blessings. This has been a valuable exercise, and it would be bad to stop just when I am getting better at it. I won’t post a running list on my blog anymore, but I hope  they will continue to appear in my writing. The blessings will still be in my notebooks, because if I don’t write them down, I probably won’t count them, and, hopefully, I will continue to learn about them and from them. I would encourage others to do the same, not only counting blessings, but sharing them with others. Your blessings might open the eyes of others to the blessings that they don’t see.