Blessed, or Not...

The phrase "I'm Blessed" has become a widespread tagline for so many in this day and age. No longer restricted to Christian or religious circles, modern culture seems to use it to express forms of personal success, be it related to family or wealth, as such perhaps best enveloped with the term "prosperity". Yes, most people equate blessing with prosperity. While i understand what it means to prosper, i've always struggled with the true definition of being "blessed". What does a blessing entail? 

The scripture gives many examples of people being blessed, even a case of stealing a blessing as Jacob did from his brother Esau. Yet the blessing of Jacob didn't mean he prospered immediatly, in fact for a time he was on the run and cheated out of some of his greatest desires. Yet David and Solomon seemed to be "blessed", or was they possessed not a blessing but simply display their prosperity? Statements of "being blessed" often bring me to consider the story of Job. Was he blessed or not? Reading the first part of the story, this guy was prosperous and then suddenly he lost everything. I would view this as a loss of his properity, not blessing. But was he at all blessed before, during and after his loss? Can and should a "blessed" person lose everything dear to him? Can losing one's prosperity equate with losing one's blessing? And in receiving double after his losses really a blessing, or is it simply compensation for the pain he endured? 

I've said i'm blessed when things go well, be it personal, health, family, work, finances, etc. So when things don't go well, i start to wonder what happened to my blessing, and whether i've been cursed instead. Job cursed the day he was born after he lost everything. I have to admit that i've done the same in the darkest moments of my life. Yet time goes by, things get better, and i start to feel "blessed" again. Can blessing really come and go? And how much of this blessing is dependant on us? Bad things happen to good people, no one can deny that. 

Yes, we look for reasons or causes of misfortune, we like to lay blame on actions or perhaps even our own thought patterns. While the mind is powerful in guiding our trajectory, it cannot be blamed for things that happen which are outside our control. The great hymn "It is well with my soul" written by Horratio Spafford perhaps gives a clue to what true blessing is. He had lost his son and four daughters in seperate tragic events, in addition to losing much of his wealth and assets through economic hardships and the Chicago fire. He then writes "it is well with my soul". He goes on to write about a "blessed hope and rest". How many of us could say or write such words after such great losses? 

 Jesus also speaks to who's blessed in his sermon on the mount. Blessed are.. the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted. None of these terms have any relationshp to the term "prosperity" which we so often equate to blessings. I'm starting to sense that none of us really understand what being blessed actually means.

WAR of Bombs and Words

Two days after my last post, Putin invades Ukraine. Very few believed he'd actually do it. He himself denied he would do it. A "Special military operation" he calls it. The free world has responded, this time the slap on the wrist has been harder and repetitive, but sanctions are still a slap on the wrist. All this while Ukraine battles for its freedom and the right to preserve democracy. Yes, the west is "assisting" Ukraine with supplies and arms, but not quite all the arms they need for a proper defence. Zelenski's pleas to close the skies has been flatly rejected. Promised MIG fighter jets offered by Poland have been stalled or blocked by NATO states fearful that Putin might take revenge and attack them. Yet NATO sends all kinds of other arms seemingly without restraint. So why doesn't NATO want Ukraine to control its own skies? The issue may be more complicated than meets my eye. Though Ukrainians' fight with a passion that puts Chuck Norris to shame, there's still the question of whether Putin's forces will succeed in subduing the Ukrainian army. If the Ukrainians would have proper air support the Russians would most certainly have not gained so much ground. But if the Russians did win, then perhaps these powerful former Polish jets would be claimed by Putin as the spoils of war. Maybe that's what's holding NATO back, perhaps they fear the jets would end up in Russian hands and used against them. So the Ukrainians are left alone to fight of an enemy which clearly has superior firepower in the air, though their ground assault seems to be taking a beating. I already wrote to some NATO leaders urging them to support Ukraine's air defence capabilites. But as hindsight is 20/20 perhaps sending the jets now would be too little too late. By rights the time to send those jets should have been days before the war started. More troubling to me is the war of words, in which NATO seems to be weak right from the start. While Putin threatens the free world with nukes, the west preempts any possibility of NATO becoming involved in the conflict. It's like saying "the door is open, go on in". Sure we threaten to sanction Russia to death, yet fail to realize Putin and most of Russia is not afraid of sanctions. Biden basically gave a carte blanche for Putin to act as he wills. This also plays deeply into how China might move on their geopolitical interests in the future. I don't know how this war will end, though i pray Ukraine will prevail as the free world steps up its tangable support in the process. But it certainly gives an eyeopening view into such varied strengths of strategies in the politics of war.