Blessed Are You
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Luke 6:17, 20-26
Full disclosure: I was scheduled to write a reflection for last Sunday’s gospel.
The long and short of it? I forgot.
[sigh]
I could stand here and offer a thousand reasons why, each as plausible, understandable, and legitimate as the next. Stuff going on at work. Stuff going on at home. Too many places to be. Too many things to do. Not enough time. Not enough me to go around.
All true. But they all sound like pretty weak excuses when I talk to myself.
Feeling kinda stupid about this little mess I created, I tried to forget about it. (Beautifully ironic, since forgetting was what got me here in the first place.) It lived rent-free in my head, though, so in an effort to atone for my transgression, I offered to write this week’s reflection, at which point (in a masterful move of what I can only think of as divine tongue-in-cheek) the Holy Spirit dropped Luke’s version of the Beatitudes in my lap.
Cute.
So much for forgetting about it. The more I tried not to dwell on my gaffe, the more it pestered me. I found myself looking at the list of blessings-that-don’t-look-like-blessings wondering: if Jesus were handing out these blessings today, would there be one for the overcommitted? The undercaffeinated? The ones with too many tabs open, both in their browsers and their brains? Would there be blessings for people like me on days like this?
I came to the conclusion that, yes, there would be.
If Jesus blesses the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the hated (not exactly the ones we usually think of as “winning” at life) then God’s blessing isn’t about status or perfection. And that leads me to believe that his blessing is big enough to include the exhausted, the overcommitted, the scattered, the frustrated, and the ones who are just trying to find their car keys.
Even those of us who understand our own work as vocation – a call, as opposed to just a job – need to be blessed from time to time. Because answering that call doesn’t mean we have it all figured out. It just means we keep going. So, in that spirit, here are some Beatitudes for people like you and me, who don’t have it all together but keep showing up anyway.
Blessed are you whose plans for the day get trashed by the morning’s first phone call, for you shall find that God often has a better plan in mind.
Blessed are you who juggle too much and drop the ball, for you shall learn that God’s mercy is not performance-based.
Blessed are you who are given more than you can handle, for you shall be reminded that God’s strength is made perfect in your weakness.
Blessed are you who say ‘yes’, even when you are not ready, for you shall learn that God’s timing is never wrong.
Blessed are you who think you’ve nailed it, only to have your plan unravel at the first question, for you shall encounter the Holy Spirit working on the fly.
Blessed are you who step up when no one else does, for you shall understand the sacrifice of servant leadership.
Blessed are you who say, “I’ll figure it out” when you really have no idea where to even begin, for you shall discover that God’s plans were already in motion.
Blessed are you who offer a small idea and suddenly find yourself in charge of a huge project, for you shall understand the significance of loaves and fishes.
Blessed are you who do the jobs that no one sees or thinks about, for you will be rewarded by the Father who sees all that is done in secret.
And blessed are you who feel uncertain, unequipped, unprepared, unqualified, or even unworthy of your vocation, for it is in those very moments that God reminds you that you have been called and chosen.
There is grace to be found in the gaps between intention and execution, overflowing inboxes, crowded calendars, and all the moments we feel a little behind. May we continue to show up, knowing that whatever we bring to our vocation, God can – and will – work with it all.
Even missed deadlines.
By Darcie Lich
