The refrains of our community right now are filled with sounds of sadness and loss, anger and disappointment. These melodies are dark and deep, aren’t they? The reasons for the heaviness of our hearts are many, not the least of which are an unbelievably stressful election season, the seventh month of isolation in a pandemic, and the uncovering of ugly truths about racism.
Last week I encouraged you to consider the practice of fasting, a discipline of removal or refraining in order to be filled with God. This week, let’s come at our communal despair from another angle – blessing others.
Right now I think our tendency, mine included, is to withdraw and nurse our wounds. There is so much division and arguments, confusion and abuses swirling around us, our self-preservation instincts are telling us that taking cover definitely is the safest option.
But this week, can I invite you to join me in stepping out from behind our shields in order to generously offer blessing to others?
Adele Ahlberg Calhoun beautifully describes the richness of this practice of blessing others. She writes:
Blessing enlarges our hearts. When we speak God’s love into a life, we help that person build a shield of truth around their heart, which protects them from the accuser.
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Friends, did you catch that? When we choose to speak blessing over another, we are speaking the Love of God into their life.
Blessing others is a way to partner with the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of God who does not condemn us but calls us beloved children, the Spirit who advocates and intercedes on our behalf, the Spirit who guides us into peace and joy and truth. In blessing others, we let go of our fear of comparison, of not being enough, and we step into God’s Kingdom of abundance.
Blessing others can look a million different ways. This could look like writing a note and dropping it in the mail, typing out a lengthy email or sending a simple text. Blessing others might mean shouting an overly-enthusiastic hello to your neighbor or cutting the last remaining flowers from your garden and bringing them to a friend. Blessing others might taste like fresh donuts or homemade bread or frozen pizza just to say you are loved, you are seen.
What’s important in this practice of blessing others, isn’t so much the particulars of what you say or what you do, but simply allowing the Holy Spirit to prompt you to action.
In these days when the reasons to curse are endless what we all really need is to hear an abundance of encouragement. Let us heap blessing on one another.
