The Spirit of Everyday (Day 4)

"When you feel sad or under a curse" . . . whenever I hear those words it always picks me up a notch.  Yeah, I know that's odd, but Godspell's All for the Best is an odd song.  A song about how unfair life is to a catchy happy tune.  Not only is it about the unfairness of life, but also the seemingly ridiculous response Jesus gives to our realization of this. Who is it that is will be blessed in Matthew 5?

• The poor in spirit
• Those who mourn
• The meek
• Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
• The merciful
• The pure in heart
• The peacemakers
• Those who are persecuted

These are not those who normally feel blessed.  I know I rarely feel blessed when I'm struggling with either my own stuff or with seeing the world as something less than God wishes it to be.  Yet, these are according to Jesus times of blessing, times when we can see somewhere out there a world that is as God would have it.  That is the tension of our faith, we both realize the problem of sin that keeps this world from being what God would have it be, but also are blessed with the knowledge that God does not mean for it to be this way.  We long for that world everyday because that is the basis of Faith(fulness).  The dichotomy of a life in Christ is that we today live both in the "now" and the "is to come."  Our blessing is found in the second half of that, we are already able to live that life, striving to see it more clearly every day.  Yet on Edgar Allen Poe's birthday we'd be remiss if we thought that the tension is easily resolved.  Much of Poe's great, albeit somewhat dark, work came from his experiences where he felt broke, betrayed, alone, and desperate. Likewise we see the struggles of this world and this life, and our laments of "God where are you?" are real. Though based in the same thought, these laments beg for the voice of one who loves us, who brings us peace, who will bring a new day, who never leaves us, and who makes things new.  Yet it doesn't change the cold we feel, or the darkness we experience and in this time we can do nothing but cling to that hope, that promise that we are not alone. 

Be it in sadness, hope, anger, faith or a sense of peace we all live in this world "in between." We know the good, we know the bad, and we know the One, who creates, redeems, and sustains all things.  May we feel protected, loved, hopeful, and most importantly blessed. 

(This song also inspired this post.)