What Is a Blessing?

So often we think that as things have gone well, we have accumulated much, our kids have turned out well, we have lived long, our marriage has been great, we then are really blessed.  My nephew asked me a question about a month ago, “do we really say we have been blessed when things and situations don’t go well?” 

As we come to Thanksgiving can you say you are blessed? Look back over the craziest year of our lives- 2020. We are wearing masks, we are anti-socializing, we are walking away from each other, much fear is given. Are we blessed? Does blessing mean everything goes well? There are no problems, accidents don’t take place, cancer doesn’t invade. And yet, those things do happen. Are we blessed?

Thirty-two years ago my life really changed. I had previously become widowed. Now I was remarried and starting all over at age 40. I took a church that was so small I had to work 3 jobs to make ends meet. While I was doing that did I believe I was being blessed? No- but time showed me that I really was. 

By getting out of the church and into the real world I found myself building relationships with a world of people who needed Jesus Christ. My main job became working as a substitute teacher in the public schools in a community about the same size as Sturgeon Bay. What this meant was that I met students, and then their parents and grand parents. They came to my home. I did weddings and funerals for their families. I spoke at school events. I met people. I wrote for the newspaper. 

What was the result? Not what I expected. At first I was angry and bitter at God. I obviously never sensed that I was blessed, but I was. By getting to know our community I had the privilege to share my savior, Jesus Christ, with people. I pastored a little country church. The attendance was 32 when I got there. Then God brought students in from a local college. Some came to know my Savior . I did some of their weddings, I saw some fo into Christian work and to this day I still have contact with them. 

Those students and their families in that community came to us for many things. I visited in their homes, I visited some in jail. I saw God work  in the life of a wild student and now he knows Christ as his personal savior.  I am still hearing from them. One graduated and after he was married, he kept coming to our home.  He listened to the Good News that Christ died for his sin and that we can have our sins forgiven, receiving eternal life. He came over every other week, and it took two years when he finally said “I get it”. He trusted Christ as his own personal savior. Less than two months later he was killed in a motorcycle accident. I could say at his funeral that because of his faith in Christ he was in heaven. As hard as that was, was I blessed? You better believe I was. 

You see, God has a way of taking all of our tough times and turning it around, showing to us His blessing. Do you see that? Are you blessed? What really is blessing? At this Thanksgiving time, take a look around and ask “what  blessing has a loving God given to me?” They might not be what we initially call a blessing, and yet they may be. The hymn writer says ‘count your many blessings, see what God has done’ and the list will go on and on and on. 

Interim Pastor Ken Muck, Sturgeon Bay Community Church