Thoughts on the Beatitudes, Last Part: What Have We Learned about Being Happy?
Someone once said that if we can’t attain to virtue, at least we can admire it. OK, maybe I made that up, which is something that others, especially Joanne (my wife) have accused me of doing. But that doesn’t make the saying any less true, and I feel that it especially applies to the Beatitudes. After all, these Jesus sayings are the epitome of godly character; an ideal to which disciples aspire; and a standard of moral and spiritual excellence that we glimpse in ourselves from time to time but that eludes us in its perfection.
Our incapacity to reach for the stars is a challenging and difficult, even offensive concept that gives rise to a misunderstanding of how we become happy. For example, one translation of the Beatitudes avoids the human conundrum by using the construct, “God blesses the person who is (poor in spirit, meek, etc.), for theirs is …” In other words, meet the condition, however you can, and the blessing is yours. As my Italian mother used to say, “Quando arrivi, scrivi” – write when you get there.
Sam Williaimson
March 10, 2018 10:13 amWait a minute, are you telling us that your own “self-improvement plans to over come sin” don’t work? So why should we read your articles?
Oh, I see. You point to and then reveal God, who ” takes what looks like nowheresville [me!] and willingly applies his riches to assure us of a more than satisfying destination in his kingdom as his pure in heart, mercy-receiving, meekness-loving, peacemaking, they sure look kind of like Jesus sons and daughters.”
Okay, that works. It ain’t my strenuous, sweaty, paltry attempts to be poor in Spirit–which never works. It is his gracious, natural, overflowing grace in his own poverty of Spirit.
Thanks
pjbeckman
March 10, 2018 1:53 pmSam,
I can only wish that I could sell my self-improvement plans at a profit, but I would only be open to conviction for fraud in doing so. And wold anyone who even remotely knows me be fooled into such a purchase?
Anyway, thanks for the comment. Glad to be on the way from Nowheresville with a good brother.