Lead With Blessings
As we continue the series ‘Into the Mess’, we are looking at the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-10. Through them Jesus describes a new era he was ushering into the Earth. This kingdom he brings begins with blessings. It’s the pronouncement that you can be joyfully blessed even if something you desperately need is absent – money, opportunity, health, people you love. It was a weird thing for first century Jews to hear because to them the very presence of these things was the evidence of being blessed.
Jesus completely upends this perspective of who is really blessed. You are blessed if you recognize you have needs that you cannot fill. You are blessed if you can recognize when things aren’t right, and you mourn the harm it causes. We all sit in this place of need and loss. If we can recognize it then we may also be able to recognize the real blessing. God is not out there somewhere while life is going to hell. God is present here and now. Psalms 34:18 says, “The Lord is near the broken hearted / the disappointed. He saves those crushed in spirit.” God is present in the mess – reaching out, catching, holding, putting things together again.
What’s more, this passage is a dual announcement. Blessed are those in desperate situations, but also blessed are those who act in solidarity through acts of mercy, integrity, peace and justice. We aren’t just the recipients; we are called to be like the One we follow. We are invited into the very act of blessing others. In Into the Mess, Debie Thomas points out that we are freely blessed and therefore free to not just bless others but to make blessing the starting point with others. She challenges us by asking, “What does it mean to lead with blessing?”
It’s worth digging deeper into this question. I invite you to prayerfully sit with these questions. If I was a person who led with blessing:
· What would I need to believe about God?
· What would I need to believe about myself?
· What would I need to believe about others?