Look for the blessings

This journey that we call life is so unpredictable.  I find myself constantly surprised by unexpected twists, unforeseen snags, and unanticipated blessings.  It can get overwhelming at times – oftentimes, in fact.  Sure, the extra blessings are a nice surprise…but what do you do with the not-so-nice surprises, with the things that you would much rather do without?

I’m learning to look at everything that happens to me as a blessing.  This is not an attitude that comes naturally to me.  How do you turn news that your job will now expect 12 hours a days from you – with no pay increase – into a blessing?  How do you smile when you’re expected to do things that are far and above beyond your capacity to do?  How do you rejoice when you are overworked and under-appreciated, and stressed to boot?  No, this is definitely not a natural attitude for me, but it is one that God has been carefully cultivating and growing in my heart for a while now.  

If the apostles could rejoice when they were tortured and killed, I think that we should be able to rejoice when we’re stressed out.  Rejoicing in bad situations has nothing to do with how many yoga classes a week you take, or what sort of aromatherapy you use, or how good your acupuncturist is.  Rejoicing in bad situations has everything to do with Who you have in your corner.  The disciples knew that, when the rubber hit the road, in the end they couldn’t lose.  And so they went at life full throttle – they never worried about the outcome, because they knew that God was looking out for them and would take care of everything in His due time. 

And so, as I am learning how to look for His blessings, my 12-hour work days become an opportunity to disconnect from South Korea some, so that it is not so painful to me when I have to leave it in 2 months.  My inability to juggle work and studying and 4 weddings within the span of a single month becomes a chance to watch God to move in my life and smooth my path for me.  Impossibly frustrating people become an exercise in patience.  A lack of funds to pay for living expenses in graduate school becomes an opportunity for God to show off His mighty hand of provision. 

When you focus on God, the rest of these things just really…stop mattering.  And when you stop stressing about them and trying to fix them all yourself, that’s when you give God the chance to show you exactly how big He is!  So stop worrying about all of the bad things happening in your life…and start looking for the blessings in them.  They’re there.  I promise you.  You just have to be willing to look for them. 

1 Corinthians 4:6-12

⁶ Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. ⁷ For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

⁸ Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! ⁹ For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! ¹¹ To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. ¹² We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³ when we are slandered, we answer kindly.