{"id":218,"date":"2009-09-21T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-21T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html"},"modified":"2009-09-21T10:39:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-21T10:39:00","slug":"blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html","title":{"rendered":"Blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family:georgia\">I heard it in a sermon a long time ago. Genesis 12:2, in which God promises Abraham: &#8220;I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.&#8221; I tend to think of it as a prayer: &#8220;Bless me, that I might be a blessing.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This prayer can only be effective (in that it only reflects truth about who God is) when both sides of the request are uttered, in tandem. &#8220;Bless me&#8221;&#8211;alone, this is selfishness. It focuses on the self, and it tries to make God beholden to my own whims, goals, desires. It is an attempt at a magic potion, not a request to a dynamic, self-giving, Trinitarian Lord.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Make me a blessing,&#8221; is similarly lopsided. If I don&#8217;t first receive, I have nothing to give. If I don&#8217;t acknowledge my own need, then I don&#8217;t acknowledge God&#8217;s love for me. &#8220;Make me a blessing,&#8221; in and of itself, can become pure self-centeredness. Let me save the world. Let me become the Messiah. Let me be seen as the one who makes a difference.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But the two together&#8211;&#8220;Bless me, that I might be a blessing&#8221;&#8211;capture the holy tension of a relational God, a God of giving and receiving. Recognition of need, and recognition of purpose. Humility in myself, confidence in God&#8217;s ability to put me to work, to equip me and send me out there to care for others. <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So I enter this week with this as my prayer&#8211;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When I am caring for my children&#8230; bless me, that I might be a blessing.<\/div>\n<div>When I am reading for class&#8230; bless me, that I might be a blessing.<\/div>\n<div>When I am talking with a friend&#8230; bless me, that I might be a blessing.<\/div>\n<div>When I am asleep, when I am exercising, when I am cleaning the kitchen, when I am eating a meal, when I am driving&#8230; in all that I am, in all that I do, bless me. That I might be a blessing. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I heard it in a sermon a long time ago. Genesis 12:2, in which God promises Abraham: &#8220;I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.&#8221; I tend to think of it as a prayer: &#8220;Bless me, that I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blessings - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blessings - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I heard it in a sermon a long time ago. Genesis 12:2, in which God promises Abraham: &#8220;I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.&#8221; I tend to think of it as a prayer: &#8220;Bless me, that I&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-21T10:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blessings - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blessings - Thin Places","og_description":"I heard it in a sermon a long time ago. Genesis 12:2, in which God promises Abraham: &#8220;I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.&#8221; I tend to think of it as a prayer: &#8220;Bless me, that I&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2009-09-21T10:39:00+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html","name":"Blessings - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-21T10:39:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-21T10:39:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/blessings.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blessings"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}