How it feels to be blessed

I'm a half-empty kind of guy. I see what's around me in terms of fact (or at least that is what I tell myself).

When I hurt, I hurt and everyone knows it.

But then I choose to read from the Gospel, and I'm shamed into seeing things more than half filled.

Jesus said (in the Message), "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. ONLY THEN CAN YOU BE EMBRACED BY THE ONE MOST DEAR TO YOU."

Oh, I fall to my less than hardened knees.

The fact is that through it all, I see most things through not rose-colored glasses but through Billy colored glasses. It's not about Him most of the time, it's about ME. Therein lies the biggest problem in life. It ain't about us.

Jesus walked up the side of that hill to the top, up from the Sea of Galilee, to a beautiful overlook where he taught the Beatitudes. I've seen it, recently, and it is a wonderful view. The Bible says He said, "you're blessed when you're content with just who you are -- no more, no less. That's the proud moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

We are victims of this half-empty living. We look at our pedigrees and our can'ts and think they mean we won't, when all they really mean is we need more of God and less of us to accomplish the task He has set in front of us. Along the way there will be losses that are so painful and inexplicable that we question what it is all for. But the bottom line is we not only bounce back, but if we understand that with every single loss we're one step closer to having more of what we need most, God himself, we get up, wash ourselves off in redemptive, baptismal water and go on into that tough life.

Half filled?

Maybe.

Totally blessed?

Without a doubt.

God loves each of us with a love that we can't understand much of the time and can't duplicate any of the time.

That's the blessing of God. Let it fill you up today.