i have what you don't
I am blessed in ways you never will be. You may even long for what I have, and I'll take it for granted. Maybe your life would be so much easier with these blessings that I have, but you never will get to experience what I do. You can cry out to God, asking him why it's so easy for what I have to come to me, someone who doesn't even see the value of what I have when you would appreciate it so much more. But you can't have it.
You have what I don't. You are blessed in ways I never will be. I long for what you have, while you just take it for granted. My life would be so much better, so much easier with those blessings you have, but I will never get to experience what you have. I've cried out many, trust me, many times to God, asking him why it's so easy for what you have to come to you, when you don't even see the value of what just falls into your lap. I would appreciate it so much more than you do. But I can't have it.
That was dramatic. But it encompasses a realization that's been slowly sinking in to my brain: life just works that way. There are benefits to life that just won't be something I get to enjoy. But as of yet, I haven't found any person who's completely full when it comes to blessings. Of course, one could say it's just a matter of perspective but I'm going for something other than attitude here. Logically, we can't have everything.
We could get super rich and buy whatever we want (okay it's not that easy but for the sake of example bear with me), but the richest people in the world are lacking certain things that homeless people could have an abundance of. What's an example, you ask? I'll just take the easy route and quote the Bible, the parable of the rich man and the beggar. If you read Luke 16:9-21, you'll find one small example of the point I'm trying to get across. Lazarus the beggar had what was actually important, and if the rich man would have just stopped and asked for what the beggar had, he wouldn't have the eternal regrets. The rich man missed out on so much that his name didn't even make it into the parable. *Side track* - This parable shows that if we take the time to serve others we may gain something worth even more than what we have to give. *Side track over*
Again, that story is more on the dramatic side of blessings. Sheesh. Drama blog. Anyways, this whole idea came from a conversation I had with a friend about our similar family situations. We talked about the ways we've dealt with divorce/separation, how that has affected the way we treat people and view relationships, and how it's extremely difficult to make someone understand what it's like unless they've been through it themselves. From the progression of that conversation, we drew the conclusion that not only is it extremely beneficial to draw on other people's experience, but it's also a responsibility to recognize our own experience and help others to understand.
Sure, we have blessings that are physical. We see so much that can be done by sharing food, money, even giving others our time and attention. But there is one priceless, unique thing that we should strive to gain from others, and share as much as possible of our own: perspective. Perspective is what makes you unique, perspective is a big part of what makes you valuable. But it's only valuable if you're willing to give it to other people, and your perspective is more valuable when you have an abundance of other, differing perspectives. Having my own perspective is easy, but it takes plenty of effort to try to understand where another person is coming from. Imagine if, in above parable, the rich man had asked Lazarus for his thoughts. Imagine if we took the time to, rather than reacting negatively to something we think doesn't match up to our social standard, ask someone what their reasoning was. Also imagine what can happen if we share what our perspective on a situation is so that others know how we may be thinking. It's oversimplified, but that's one of the biggest reasons people fight, and conflict resolution is literally perspective sharing.
This is to further the most important part: why our blessings are not just for us. Each blessing comes with a responsibility. If someone truly knows what it's like to love another person and build a relationship that lasts, what good is her perspective if nobody knows it? If someone has been through battles with depression, organized his thoughts, and come out the other side with a wealth of knowledge on how to have more good days than bad, how many people could he affect with just a conversation here and there? It's a responsibility to recognize what we have, too. Thinking about what's easy to take for granted and capitalizing on what comes easy to us.
2 Corinthians 3-4 is one of my favorite passages as a (hopefully) future counselor. It goes to the root of the responsibility of blessings by saying "...we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." Comfort with the comfort by which we have been comforted. Never gets old. But Paul says any trouble. Any trouble can be comforted by us (we, you, me), if we accept the comfort from God. There are some big troubles in the world. Big ones. What that tells me is that we also have big responsibility. Maybe our responsibility isn't to fix, but to simply comfort. What does that look like? I think it looks a lot like sharing our perspective of hope. The "hey. I've been there and it gets more than better. There are things that make it seem like the world is caving in right now, but they're building your perspective to one that will be a more solid kind of positive." Just that kind of promise, the injection of hope into my life whether I asked for it or not, has spurred me through some otherwise hopeless times.
Perspective can be a healer, a hope-injector, an encourager, and a teacher. Most importantly, however, perspective is a responsibility.
~mason
PS: I'll probably run out of things to say soon, but if until then you want to read more, type your email into the "subscribe" section on the home page.