Everybody Wants a Blessing

Back in 1995, a wise old preacher shocked me out of my idealistic romanticism when, at the end of our incredibly meaningful, inspiring, starry-eyed wedding he pronounced the following benediction:

And now, may God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give you

Enough trials to make you strong

Enough tears to make you tender

Enough sorrows to make you human

Enough failure to make you humble

Enough hope to keep you happy

Enough friends to give you comfort

Enough faith to banish depression

Enough determination to make each day better than yesterday.

This is NOT what I had in mind as we commenced our married life. Blessings of joy, peace and prosperity, dizzying love, endless pleasure and eternal happiness was more along the lines of what I envisioned lied ahead.

As days turned into months and months into years, I found the rugged, grit-and-gut blessing a lot more helpful and real than any sugarcoated Hallmark card could have ever bestowed on us that day.

Wishing somebody trials and sorrows, failure and depression may not be what you and I want. But, whether we like it or not, these uninvited visitors will come and some may want to stay.

What I didn’t understand at the time was that the old wise preacher was giving us a working construct, a well-laid out pathway to robust faith, vitality of hope and resilience I didn’t realize we needed that day.

The emotion of the moment was quite enough.

And so, today, as we look at the end of one year and peer into another, I bestow the same blessing to you as it has been handed down to us, with prayer that the Spirit of Jesus Christ and His Living Word would make it active and robust in your life as it has in ours.