“When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”
We of the “alert” or Paying Attention Community, or whatever you wish to call it, need to return to that childhood song frequently, like daily. We need to remind ourselves, myself included, that the entire world has not dissolved into a dark sludge of immorality, corruption, greed, and deception. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of that going on, I just mean we need to ensure that our entire existence does not live there in the swampy muck, 24/7.
A bit funny, I recently followed yet another fight over worship music on “Christian” social media and had to resist the powerful urge to lecture and say, Absolutely none of you are qualified to even have an opinion since it is quite clear you have not yet mastered the two most important hymns ever written, “Jesus Loves Me This I know” and “Count Your Blessings One by One.” No wonder you are all so gag worthy, you are trying to eat meat when you haven’t even’t mastered drinking the milk yet!
I was able to resist saying any of that, at least until today. I am wailing in despair over the fact that even I call those “childhood hymns.” They are thought to be, at least within pop culture Christianity, hymns reserved for small children. There is an assumption made, a false assumption I might add, that we will have mastered these two concepts in childhood and now progressed to finer things in adulthood.
Au contraire. I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong that is. Half the time I am left wondering if grown up people aren’t progressing backwards or evolving in reverse or something. Once a pastor I rather liked would say, “we’re growing,” and I would have to bite my tongue so as not to say, “Where?! Can you show me some evidence of all this growth?” I am just not seeing it.
Long ago when I was doing Sunday school and there was conflict or some kind a tension, a fight about to break out, I would say, okay, it’s time for a song. Very funny, several of the kids would groan outright, no doubt keenly aware of my singing inabilities, but they would join in and we would sing those two songs. By the time we were finished, the whole atmosphere had changed.
The path to sound mental health, the path to peace, the path to mature conflict resolution, the path to greater wisdom, the path to healthy human relationships always begin with two presuppositions, two certainties. Jesus loves me and I am infinitely blessed. People who genuinely grasp that, who inhale it with every ounce of their being cannot be offended, cannot be filled with despair, and cannot get into foolish conflicts with others. Notice I said, “foolish conflicts.” Some conflicts are not foolish, they are good and necessary.
Alas, most of us tend to stray from that sense of peace and safety, that sense of just abiding in the goodness and peace of the Lord periodically, perhaps even throughout the day. I’m just saying, do everything in your power to make sure you return to it early and often.
So as we slip into Advent here, I’d like to remind everyone, Jesus loves you and you are blessed.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
You shouldn’t have resisted the urge to lecture the “Christians” who were fighting over worship music. You might have helped them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL! Thank you for your kind words, Clyde. I’m laughing because rather than “helping,” I think I would have just said something I would regret. Sometimes it’s best to cool off and walk away. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, IB, I agree that sometimes it is best to cool off and walk away. I like to think that my apartment is my “sanctuary” (I live alone) and when I am upset about something, I can just “talk it out” with myself in the privacy of my apartment; however, in our tech-savvy world today, even the walls have ears. Seems absolutely nothing is private anymore. So my most private prayers (as in talking it out with God) are prayed silently. It’s hard to have privacy when everyone thinks it’s their business to nose into other people’s business even in private. As much as I love the techie wonders of our age today, there is a definite downside to it, and we have all given up our privacy without our consent because of it, too.
I agree with your assessment above. Too often we adults are more like children who have never grown up but we like to think that we are mature and grown up. We live in a world where it seems almost everyone is too easily offended, too ready to fight it out, and not willing to compromise in the least little bit, and yet still consider themselves to be grown up and mature.
“Au contraire,” as you stated above. I like the reminder that you ended with–“So as we slip into Advent here, I’d like to remind everyone, Jesus loves you and you are blessed.” And that blessing extends to those we are fighting with, too (even when we haven’t asked to be involved in the fight but we are dragged into it anyway).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hear you about “giving away our privacy without our consent,” Sara! Along with that went the idea of respect, of honoring other people. We used to say things like, “respect her privacy,” because a big part it had to do with respect, good manners, common courtesy, human decency. Today it’s more like everyone is hoping to, “catch you in the act” and expose you for goodness knows what. I hope this is a passing phase and our culture eventually re-aligns itself because I hate it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are times when you need to walk away and cool down, but after you are cooled down it can be helpful to return and respond.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for boiling it down to the simple concept of “Jesus loves me and I’m infinitely blessed.” That, I can remember!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Tricia! I have “blessed” in big letters by my bed because the moment I open my eyes I tend to start forgetting it. I think it’s partly just our brains, we’re kind of designed to look for scarcity, need, things that should be fixed, problems to be solved, dangers that threaten us. Just relax and receive His peace and His blessings is almost never on my to do list. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine neither! Although because I’ve always suffered from anxiety , so I’m pretty used to repetitive(obsessive?) thoughts running around my head. I might as well replace the negative ones with thoughts about Jesus and being blessed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We too quickly and easily forget that we are to become as little children. Thanks for the awesome reminder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Judy. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is so easy to focus on things NOT so blessed right? Probably why we are reminded to ‘set your affections on things above.’
Anyway, if we were to catalog ‘one by one,’ we would be here a while. Things we experience daily: rain, clouds, streams, lakes, rivers, oceans, the smell of newborns, work, art, eyes, strength, friends, love, faith, joy, hope, peace, self control, on and on and on, all things blessed.
So when people say ‘be blessed,’ we can say, ‘already am.’
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is i fair to obbserve that , while we have progressed from walking through riding, then driving clear to flying, our DNA/behavior remains pretty much where it started? We have received plenty of excellent advice but nothing with effect upon the cellular level …
LikeLiked by 1 person