I've lived in a Christian environment my entire life. My entire family is Christian, and I've never usually blinked an eye at common phrases I hear all the time in the western middle class churches I have experiences with. However, there is a certain word that is starting to grate on me. It's one I used to think denoted piety and a deeper understanding, but now, I'm not so sure. This is not to say that people who express this phrase are less Christian or mean it with bad intent. However, there is a bad attitude that this can lead to and I believe that this word is used inappropriately often. The word is "blessing."
The problem is not the word itself. It's the way we use it. Blessing has a dictionary definition, but in Christian circles, it has a spiritual meaning. God blesses us with things that He knows is best for us. Therefore, many Christians use blessing to describe their family, good health, and their earthly provisions. However, many Christians use it to describe, well, just about everything. Getting a new car? Such a blessing. Got a huge raise at work allowing for a pricey vacation to Europe? God really blessed that family. Really wanted a cinnamon bun and your husband comes home with one? Wow, what a little God wink, he's blessed us so much! For the love of all that is holy please stop. We often mistake blessing with what is mere privilege and have been trained to see it as a blessing from God. I have awful news. This is a prosperity gospel fueled, idealistic belief that God hands down every little thing we own as if we need it or are rewarded with it. We don't and aren't. No one needs 45 mugs, an Xbox, and a giant bean bag. We want those things and some of us are privileged to have them. God isn't as consumeristic as we make Him, and we've gotten really good at making Him work for our cultural settings and privileges. Sure, hard work and talent go into certain aspects of jobs and successes, but there are also millions of people around the world enslaved, oppressed, and exploited completely our of their control. So does God bless them, less? Or are we confusing privilege with blessing?
What do you tell the impoverished of the world? That God continually blesses you while he ignores them? I mean kids dying for hunger are waiting for that blessing of an expensive three course meal that God supposedly blessed you with because you needed it so bad. Should they pray harder? Or should we ignore them to make ourselves feel like God really cares if we blow one hundred dollars on steak as some sort of heavenly reward? It's not a reward. It's a privilege. It's perfectly acceptable to take advantage of a privilege, as long as you accept that's what it is. It's a privilege, and not some sort of heavenly provision that a blessing insinuates. There are many people who pray and pray and still live in misery. God blesses them. God may bless them with the will to keep living. God may bless them with their story being heard to stop the injustice. However, the fact they never got materialistic excesses or fabulous jobs does not mean they weren't blessed. They were simply not as privileged.
How about this: God blessed me with the privilege of economic comfort so I could use that to further His work in helping the poor. How about this: God blessed me with a platform to educate those around me about the issues around the world of injustice. What if we made those the blessings? What if we checked our privilege and realized the difference? Praises at church would sound quite a bit different. Instead of praising God that I got an A in political science, praising God he made me intelligent enough to dissect issues and find moral solutions. How about praising Him for the blessing of getting an education to help others attain one they did not deem possible. What if we made our outlook on blessings more about others instead of how they make us happy?
