Blessed or Cursed?

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman                            

These last few days I have been reading more of Henri J.M. Nouwen's "Life of the Beloved" I know God brought this book to me at this time in my life so that I would know and understand His Great and magnificent love for me.

Today when I was reading though, It really hit me hard why we need to so desperately understand who we are and how God see's us. Henri writes this in his book,
"Not claiming your blessedness will lead you quickly to the land of the cursed. There is little or no neutral territory between the land of the blessed and the land of the cursed. You have to choose where it is that you want to live, and that choice is one that you have to keep making from moment to moment."

Really? Like who would actually make a conscious choice to live in the "land of the cursed," are there people who wake up and say today, I will live in the land of the cursed, tomorrow, maybe believe what God says about me and live in the land of the blessed. How do we really do this to ourselves? How do we let other people do that to us? How do we do that to other people? Does not make sense on any human level, but yet we do. We go back and forth as if this is what we deserve.

Then Henri goes on about this, "I must tell you that claiming your own blessedness always leads to a deep desire to bless others. The characteristic of the blessed ones is that , wherever they go, they always speak words of blessing. It is remarkable how easy it is to bless others, to speak good things to and about them, to call forth their beauty and truth, when you yourself are in touch with your own blessedness. The blessed one always blesses, and people want to be blessed! This is so appearant every where you go. No one is brought to life through curses, gossip, accusations, or blaming. There is so much of that taking place around us all the time. And it calls forth darkness, destruction and death. As the "blessed ones" we can walk through this world and offer blessings."

What would it look like if we could wake up everyday and remember what God calls us? Remember how he sees us? Remember what he has done for us? How much more could we affect change in our homes, our work, our towns, our cities and nations.

Today if you are reading this, Know that God loves you! He really loves you! You are His blessed child! He wants to know you. God sees you as beautiful and wonderful. He has great plans for you. He wants to prosper you. He takes Pride in you!

Now go bless someone else!