confluent thoughts: INCONVENIENT BLESSINGS...?

Christmas Day is over! Boxing Day aka the New Black Friday is just about to end.

This morning, I ate breakfast at a coffee shop after a good early morning jog. I ordered my food, paid, said "God bless you" to the barista, went and found a table, sat, changed the song in my MP3 player, and waited. While waiting, I found a window of time to relax and think-- think about blessings! Especially now that we are days away from the close of this year and the beginning of the next. I thought of how God graciously blessed me and family, my friends and my church with His favor.

“God bless you!” we say when someone sneezes. "God's blessings" I often sign at the end of an email, card, or letter. “What a blessing!” we say when hear something good. A child is taught to pray a simple prayer: "God bless Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Felix the Cat." We think we want God’s good favor, God’s approval, or at least we want good things for ourselves and for those whom we love that's why we say "God bless you." Even the modern "Good Bye" comes from that root phrase.

“Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,” we say at this time of year. And, beneath the sentiment lies a blessing of fulfillment and prosperity, however weakly felt or intended.

“The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

On the surface, we ask for good things to come our way: protection, comfort, healing, and material prosperity. God is the dispenser of good things, we believe, and so we ask for his blessing. But, I wonder if we really know what we’re doing when we invoke God’s presence in our lives. Some choose religion to be happy, blessed and have God's attention and favor!

Just what does it mean to have God’s attention focused our direction, anyway?

C. S. Lewis, the same author who brought the Chronicles of Narnia to life, wrote, “I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port would do that. If you want a religion to make you really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” And, I wonder if, when he wrote those words, he hadn’t been pondering the Christmas story in which God took initiative to bless humanity that initially resulted to the inconvenience of many- an honorable man finding out his fiancee is pregnant our of wedlock; a teen-aged woman who got pregnant in the strangest of ways, a king who suddenly became insecure when he learned a new king was born, shepherds disturbed by the noise some angels made, etc., all because God took action with the intention of blessing us!

We have the glorious freedom to accept God’s intention. But then, that isn’t the equivalent of winning the lottery. The Christian message does not so much pave the way to easy money as it proclaims that God will have God’s way; come join the parade! You will be astounded by life unimaginable!

The Magnificat is Mary’s acceptance speech of God’s blessing, she discovers her own deep purpose and, in that discovery, sees God’s blessing for the world. God intends to have God’s way. God intends to turn things upside down so that we might see the folly of our own pride and vanity, and then willingly, even joyfully, join the holy parade of the blessed.

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iN OTHER NEWS" Nephews and Nieces this Christmas!