Blessed!

The beatitudes: blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled, blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see the face of God, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, etc. Here is an awesome set of verses that inspire us to endure when we suffer--WHY we can endure. Are these verses suggesting spiritual masochism, being sad should make you happy? If you aren't being persecuted, you must not be Christian enough? Try to mourn more, God likes that. Hunger and thirst for righteousness MORE--come on, you can do it!

No. I don't think this verse is lifted up primarily to tell us to be as oppressed and depressed as possible. I think it is rather instruction on how to endure such season. Think of it this way:

Let's say I buy something on the internet that I've wanted a long time. I used my paypal account and sent $100 for it. It will arrive in six weeks. Now, I can't do any more shopping because my money is gone. Poor me. I'm living without my $100! Now, we don't think that, that's dumb! We spend our time clicking our heels together because that thing is in the mail! We don't focus on the suffering of being without the $100--we focus on the excitement of waiting for what is certainly coming. "Blessed are those without $100, for your package is coming by UPS."

If you bear the fruit the believer: purity of heart, meekness of spirit, being persecuted in this world, mourning, longing....you can know that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." Far outweighs them all? We paid $100 and God is sending 1000 of those things we wanted? A solid gold one? One worth so much more it is absurd to even compare the value of what we don't have with what's coming? Wow, that's awesome. I'm blessed!