Happy Birthday, Ann (or reflections from a refugee from China)

Book excerpt: 

BLESSED

Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness:

The Healing Power of the Beatitudes

Completion of "Poor in Spirit"  Matthew 5:3

For Discussion: (Look through these quotes from the chapter. Choose some to discuss more fully as a group or even individually. What “blessings” does God have for you as you reflect?)

We are hobbled right from the beginning by our basic nature.

We as human beings are born with that clenched fist that says “mine”.

We assume that we are a compassionate people. And at times, to some extent, we are.

But when pushed into a corner? Not usually.

Research has repeatedly shown that no matter where one is on the social scale [lower, middle, upper class], each level believes they deserve more. The poorest of the poor believe they deserve more, but the top 1% also believe they deserve more (Krause).

Wealth, power, or prestige, three of the biggest addictions on the face of this earth.

We are the Pharisee standing in the temple, (Luke 18:9-18) comparing ourselves to everyone else, and thinking we are looking pretty good.

There are 4 basic relationships: to ourselves, to God, to others, to the world of nature/technology. Any and all of these relationships are “hwai le” (broken).

We are dysfunctional: emotionally, relationally, physically, socially, spiritually, eternally.

We are “the good, the bad, the ugly” all on the same horse.

We are nibbling ourselves lost.

As a Chinese proverb says, “one bed, two dreams.”

Our strengths and weaknesses are flip sides of the same coin

Not necessarily the “evil” in us, but rather that which is less than attractive: our shadow.

How often do we “destroy” others or what they believe simply because we don’t want to look at our ugliest side?

It involves looking at the real root of our problems not just the symptoms that hint at our problems

Life is like a spiral staircase.

It boils down to our inability to deal with ourselves.

“Man killed God,” Nietzsche believed, “because he did not want anyone to look at his ugliest side.”

Yes, our job is to “struggle”, to stand against these propensities, but maybe our job is also to “accept” our inabilities: to be “poor in spirit”.

Sometimes He delivers us out of the difficulty, but just as often He stands with us as we go right through the middle of it. 

The difference in making this beatitude work is not do we give up but how we give up.

We have lost enough of ourselves that deep within a door opens---from the other side----inviting us to come in.