Late afternoon in SK

TOW: Blessings

I attended a very good mass this evening, and for once, I was not only very attentive, but also very connected.  The priest was speaking on a subject I myself am currently wrestling with, which is what can be considered a blessing in one's life?

The wonderful, and also the most challenging thing about being a Christian is the fact that even the saddest of trials are meant to be blessings in our lives.  We often call Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Blessed Mother of the Church.  We considered her to be the most blessed human being, other than Jesus.
 
But what made her so blessed?  Pregnant before marriage in a time when it was punishable by death, the cause of hundreds of infant deaths because some crazy king believed he would be overthrown by a baby born under the star of Bethlehem, exiled to another country as a refugee, she followed her son around, and watched him get punished and crucified by her own people and leaders within her community.

As the priest mentioned, "Do you think Mary felt blessed then?"

The wonderful thing about being a Christian, and about the birth of Jesus, the Annunciation, and Easter, is the Christian response to evil in the world.  It's also the stumbling block for all non-Christians.  It's because Christians believe that God allows certain evil things, things we don't understand, to happen.  Why do people have to die? Why does evil exist?

The question I struggle with regularly is the problem of evil...but I feel relatively at ease with where I am with my own answer.  Blessings still abound amongst a world filled with things that are 'not right.'

I think that blessings for a Christian means a perspective. I cannot explain the presence of God in any other way other than to say that all those things...those small things which can seemingly ruin our lives, small things that turn into large things that makes us obsessed, full of neuroses, damaged...these things are nothing to a blessed person.  Because someone blessed does not ignore the importance of evil in the world...but it is so much less.  The experience of God, the experience of the reality of good is so strong, that acknowledgement of evil does not affect the trajectory of goodness. Goodness is always pointed straight at it's target. 

So, this season, I will not be looking to 'count' my blessings.  I am aiming for something better than that.

TOW: Productivity

This isn't a long thought, but sometimes productivity can get in the way of things that really matter in your life.


As we come closer to the Christmas season (and especially, as a Catholic, during Advent) it's a time of reflection on the goodness of life, and the joy that is possible. 


I know that lately, in my life, I take getting things done as a sign of success, versus the ability to reflect on things, which I think is it's own kind of success.

Action, and reflection are two important things that make us human, and thoughtful.  One without the other is often meaningless.

Sometimes too much of one leads to not enough of the other.


One of the reasons I love winter is because it forces us to really curl up in whatever place we call home, and spend quality time with ourselves, our family, and those we love.

Productivity is action, but action in the sense of doing those things you love.  Reflection is about thinking on those things worth loving, and thinking of how to pursue them in an intelligent and strategic manner. 

Life has meaning when we are productive.  But productivity isn't always about results....sometimes it's about the ability to know what those results mean.