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"You are blessed when you are at the end of your rope. Have you ever been at the end of your rope? I bet the last word you would use to describe that time in your life is the word 'blessed.'"
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 94.
Blessed when I'm at the end of my rope - Seriously? How can that be? That statement came from The Message's presentation of Matthew 5:3. Here's how we normally hear that verse.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (NIV)
Here's how Eugene Peterson puts that same verse in his transliteration The Message.
You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. (MSG)
I love to study the Bible. I've heard it said that God's Word is active and alive. I have found that statement to be the absolute truth. It is when we take time to dig into the words that are printed on the page that the Bible comes alive in life changing ways. When you take time to study the original words in the Bible you begin to see how one verse can look to have such different meaning like our Matthew 5 reading from today.
On the surface, it sure looks like somebody was asleep at the wheel when they came up with these two versions of Matthew 5:3. But when you take a closer look you see that they really aren't that far apart. Before we get into the question about being blessed at the end of our rope, let's look at one part of these two different interpretations of what was originally written by Matthew and see if they make sense.
End of your rope. That's quite a bit different sounding than poor in spirit. Yet, both the theologians working to produce the NIV Bible and Eugene Peterson did similar things to come up with the words we read today. They both tore apart the Greek words that were used to convey what Matthew wrote with regards to the sermon Jesus gave when He shared these words. They looked at the context from which those words were said. They considered their root words of what was said to get a better idea of what was meant. They then compared similar uses of those words to get a better idea of what was trying to be communicated here. Peterson did one more thing in that he tried to communicate the meaning of the words using simple, common and everyday phrases. I don't in any way compare Peterson's transliteration for the kinds of accuracy a translation like the NIV is but for gaining some understanding as to what was being said, Petereson's work is a beautiful and powerful tool for me.
So the word for "poor in spirit" was seen by Peterson to be "end of your rope." When I consider what poor in spirit might actually mean from the original language I can see how these two connect with each other. When we are at the end of our rope, we can feel empty, lacking, actually like a pauper when it comes to spiritual power. I know what it is like to be poor in spirit and I also know what it feels like to be at the end of my rope. Those two feelings coincide very closely in my opinion.
Where I get a little less convicted of the accuracy of Peterson's presentation is when he connects blessing to being at the end of my rope. Look, I can almost understand Jesus saying that we are blessed when we are lacking in spiritual things. I'm just learning what it is to be living in a spiritual way. Lacking in that trait is something I'm very familiar with and know that in times of little, God shows up in ways that really are a blessing. But, the thought of being blessed when I'm at the end of my rope seems kind of foolish to say the least.
When I first read Peterson's description of this verse I dismissed it as the fact he must have had a bad moment when he wrote this out. But, I couldn't stop thinking about blessing being connected to being at the end of my rope. I kept coming back to this verse until one day I saw what blessing was being defined as in both readings. Blessing is more of God, more of His Kingdom, and, as Peterson says it - less of me.
I am blessed when I am in a position where I can see more of God. I am just as blessed when I don't have to focus so much on my stuff. Sometimes that blessing happens when things are going really well in my life. More often than not, that blessing happens when challenging times hit. Times when I am forced to look beyond my own abilities and circumstances for something substantial in my life are times when I really look back on as being blessed times in my life.
That's a victor's way of thinking about this life. If we require that this life be blessed only when things are going our way I really don't believe that we put ourselves in a position where reality in firmly in control. A victor isn't blessed because all things are going his way. A victor is blessed because God is there in His life. Sometimes hard times make it easier to look for and to find God in ways that make the victor more likely to live out the power God has placed in our identity.
Are you are the end of your rope today? I hope you don't think you should be happy about that? That's not what today's Bible reading is all about. Happiness isn't the issue, blessing is! Look at your life through a different lens today. Look at blessing through the lens of presence - God's presence. He is with you because you are His Child. More of Him and less of you is what makes the power of your existence be all the victory this world will ever need to have.
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