The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Autor: Peter Houston
Datum: 20.08.2010
Category: Wohlstandsevangelium
I was telling some friends about a prayer said at our wedding. It was not your usual prayer asking for God’s Blessing:
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart;
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may wish for justice, freedom, and peace;
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
I am challenged by the thought that God’s Blessing may come in a guise I’m not looking for or would even welcome. Bring on cars and houses and millions, not angst and anger! It takes a certain type of faith to see God in the midst of ruins.
During the Second World War bombs and fire destroyed many buildings. In the ruins of Coventry Cathedral in England is inscribed:
“God be in my hands and in my making.
God be in my senses and in my creating.
God be in my heart and in my loving.
Go be at my desk and in my trading.
God be in my pain and in my enduring.
God be in my plans and in my deciding.
God be in my mind and in my growing.
God be in my limbs and in my leisure.”
How easy is it to find God where you are?
Stichwörter: Prosperity gospel, Blessing, Cars, Anger, Injustice, Ruins, God
Ansichten: 5898
Kommentare: 3
Empfehlungen: 0
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Schweiz
Job was quite logical to my point of view. God was in charge but He never did initiate the sufferings and pains. A blessing is a blessing... no?
23.08.2010
Südafrika
@ David_Hausmann:
A "blessing is a blessing" in the most obvious sense of being blessed with health and wealth as was the case with Job when everything turned out well for him in the end. The problem with simply equating such a blessing with God’s blessing is that there are plenty of healthy and wealthy people, who in one sense have been blessed by God with what they have, but may not even know God or have turned their back on God.
Conversely, especially in the continent I live on, there are many, many people who are deeply devoted to God for whom health and wealth is less evident (or altogether absent). A blessing in this context would be, as the prayer above indicates, for us to experience discomfort, feel anger, and aspire to a foolish hope in the face of injustice, oppression and exploitation.
These negative blessings from God (or certainly negative emotions) are not usually high up the list of things I hear people pray for themselves. "Lord, more anger, bless me with more anger...at injustice." "Father, bless me with discomfort, not comfort, in the face of third word poverty and first world materialism."
Amen?
23.08.2010
Schweiz
@ Pete_Houston:
It makes more sense now. Thank you.
24.08.2010
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