Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.   James 5:13 (NRSV)

The Nature of Blessings Just what does it mean to be blessed? Well, most people immediately think of it being something that brings material or temporal happiness and prosperity, such as might be seen well over a hundred times in the Old Testament (aren't online concordances fun?). Deuteronomy 28:1-14 has a particularly vivid account of what it is to be blessed by God in this sense. To be blessed with prosperity is most certainly one of the things God can and has done for many people, and this is usually what people think of when they think of a blessing from God. However, consider this: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Mat 5:3-12 (NRSV) Well, this passage, famous and well-known as it is, is really not what most people immediately imagine it's like to be blessed by God. They think of King David, they think of Abraham, they think of Jacob, but rarely do people think of suffering as being blessed, even if they give lip service to the idea. The verse on which this section of Priscilla's Pen is based, , is equally challenging. Job suffered terribly, and he endured anguish which most people can only imagine, if they dare to imagine it at all. And this is a blessing? Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. James 5:11 (NRSV) Yes. Suffering can be a blessing, and I believe this completely. So did the apostle Paul, in fact. In the epistle to the Romans (Rom 5:3-4) Paul writes that we should boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character. In my lifetime, I've suffered a great deal, and I am the first to admit that I have not really been all that happy to suffer. Some people would say this is an attitude problem on my part, but I don't honestly know how any person could really rejoice when they are overwhelmed with anguish, pain, and suffering. So what was Paul getting at, and furthermore, what was Jesus talking about when he listed all the ways people can be blessed with, basically, suffering and pain? The ways of God are pretty much always contrary to the ways of this world, I've found. The world says "Fight for yourself!" and Jesus said "Turn the other cheek." The world says "God helps those who help themselves" and Jesus said not to worry about things like food and clothing, trusting in God to provide. The world teaches us to ignore or even harm our enemies; Paul wrote that we should offer our enemies food and drink. In the same sense, a blessing is not always what the world would think a blessing is. It is entirely true that "every perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17), but that which the flesh, the mind, the world might consider a good gift and that which God considers a good gift may well be entirely different. What sort of blessing, then, is suffering? Well, first of all, I want to note that things like being abused as a child, living in poverty, or being assaulted are hardly good things. I really do not believe that God approves, likes, or otherwise consents to such things. In fact, Jesus spoke strongly on the subject of how to treat others, including, "love your neighbor as you love yourself" (Mat 22:39) and "treat others as you wish them to treat you" (Luke 6:31), and even to treat your enemies well and with kindness and concern (Mat 5:44, Luke 6:27). As for child abuse, Jesus had some pretty harsh things to say about anyone who sets up stumbling blocks for little children. (Mat 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2), not the least of which is that anyone guilty of such a thing would be better off being drowned in the sea. Paul wrote that fathers should not provoke their children to anger (Eph 6:4). The Bible generally regards children as a blessing and a gift from God, and speaks repeatedly of raising them in the knowledge of the Lord, and this no doubt includes the lessons on how to treat people and on God's own kindness and mercy. In my life I have learned firsthand that childhood abuse most certainly creates a whole host of stumbling blocks to faith; I am quite sure that God does not approve of mistreating children. I believe with all my heart that God can and does use all circumstances, even bad ones, and turns them to his advantage and good (Rom 8:28). People do awful things to each other, and this has been true since the beginning of time, and will be true until the end when Christ returns to set all things right. God allows it for reasons of his own, but the fact is that no one, absolutely no one, gets through this life without bearing the scars and the damage done by sins perpetrated against us. The blessing is in surviving. It's the gift of perserverence. Job continued, although he often ranted and raged and was pretty arrogant at times, to believe in a just God, and to believe that what had happened to him, Job, was not his own fault, and he was right. When he managed to persevere to the end, he was rewarded, and, no doubt, he was profoundly changed by the experience. He, himself, said that when God had tested him, he would come out as gold (Job 23:10), referring to the refining process of intense heat to which fine metals are subjected. What was Job's reward? Well, he was rewarded materially, that's certainly true. But there was much more. Job actually saw God, and lived to tell the tale, and to be humbled by the experience. His first, and probably greatest reward, was in finding -- or being found by -- God. Another thing Job received, according to James, was endurance. And Paul wrote to the Romans that endurance produced character, and certainly, this is an incredibly valuable gift from God. To have a godly character (even with our occasional lapses into base humanity) is an unspeakably precious treasure. Job said he would come out as gold (Job 23:10); I have no doubt that he did. The blessings, or rather character qualities, of which Jesus spoke, are not usually thought of as being particularly great by worldly standards. Why are the poor in spirit blessed? Why are mourners blessed? Why are those who hunger and thirst for justice blessed? Well, aside from Jesus' speech saying that they would inherit the earth and receive rewards in heaven and so forth, I'll tell you some of my own life experience, and this is something that I've also read from the pen of many other Christian writers. People who are comfortable, self-satisfied, being treated fairly, and are otherwise having a not-too-terrible time of it rarely seek God. Oh, sure, they may go to church and be active in various church activities, no argument there. And they may well be professing Christians, and they may be good at reading the Bible and even preaching. But the hunger and thirst that comes from the very depths of the soul is almost never experienced or recognized until we are put in a position of weakness, or of suffering, or of desperation. For many people, the only time we really work to find God, to really find and know God, is when we are poor, humbled, victims of injustice, when we are reviled and persecuted. And only when we are willing to truly turn to God apart from our pre-conceived notions of who and what God is, apart from our own self-righteousness, apart from our own strength and ability to control the situation, do we begin the process of sanctification, the maturing of our Christian character. The longer we cling to our own understanding, the harder it is to let go of that and listen to what God has to say to us. The longer we believe we are strong and know what's going on, the longer it will take before we figure out that our own strength is worthless and our own knowledge is next to meaningless. Yes, I believe that suffering and oppression can be a blessing, and not just because I've read it. One of the traits acquired from my past is that I rarely believe anything just because I read, hear, or am told it. I've been hurt too many times to fall for that. For me to believe something, I have to test it, feel it, come to know it by experience and understanding. This is a mixed blessing in itself, as it means that I generally have to experience all kinds of unpleasantries before I can believe the truth. I have suffered, sometimes greatly, and I have learned for a certainty that I belong to God and that he actually knows what he's doing, even if I sometimes still act like Job and rant and rage and complain and contradict myself and weep (and I have, sometimes). Despite my pain, despite my own suffering and the anguish I have had to live with, I do believe what Paul said when he wrote: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. Rom 8:18 (NRSV) New Main Menu About Contact The Blessing of Job

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.   Romans 12:12 (NRSV)
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