Deborah McDermet

Temporary Things

Many people believe that God has blessed them because their lives are full of good things, good families, good jobs, etc. But that’s not how God’s blessings work. Jesus never said, “Blessed are you who have good things in your lives.” Remember the rich young ruler? God did not “bless” him with his riches. How do we know that? Because his riches were the very thing that kept him from following Jesus. God would never give something to us that would keep us from following him. So, those good things that we call “blessings” might not be blessings at all!

As a matter of fact, Jesus said, “But woe to you who are rich.” And “Woe to you who are full now.” And “Woe to you who laugh now.” And “Woe to you when all people speak well of you.”¹ Woah! And Wow! Not only does God never promise to bless us with a life full of good things, he says a life full of good things is a curse! Jesus says that rich satisfied popular people who laugh a lot are cursed! How can this be? Here’s how.

When our lives are going really well, we tend to believe it will always be that way. We put more value on the good things than they merit and soon we begin to worship our good things and they become our little gods. Other people become dependent on their good things and soon realize they could not live without their good things. At the very least, good things distract us from the truly important things. Good things call out for our attention.  If we do not invest in them, we feel irresponsible. But Jesus says we are cursed if we have them. Why would it be so bad to have good things? For this reason: they are temporary!

When our lives are going really badly, we tend to believe it will always be that way.  So, does God ever bless us with good things? Not really. He does bless us, though. Jesus gave his disciples a list of blessings that were theirs. He said, “Blessed are you who are poor.” And “Blessed are you who are hungry.” And “Blessed are you who weep now.” And “Blessed are you when people hate you.”² Wow! And Woah! We call this list the beatitudes and most people misunderstand them or do not contemplate for very long what Jesus was saying because it makes no sense to consider ourselves “blessed” when we are poor hungry weeping hated people! Surely, Jesus was confused! Shouldn’t he be saying, “Woe to you who are poor and blessed are you who are rich”? Why are we “blessed” when we have bad things? For this reason: they are temporary! It’s the one thing poor people and rich people have in common!

But more than that, rich satisfied popular people who laugh a lot are less likely to depend on God than poor hungry weeping hated people. But more than that. Only God can make us happy or “blessed.” Good things cannot make us happy or “blessed.” Good things are not necessarily bad things until we make them so—like the rich young ruler did. Most of us believe that we would never make a good thing a bad thing, but Jesus knew differently. He said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God”³—which is why it is a curse to have a lot of good things.

But more than that. People who depend on God will one day be rewarded (which is the proper use of this word “bless”) with “the kingdom of God.” And they “shall be satisfied.” And they “shall laugh.” And they will one day “leap for joy” and receive a “reward [that] is great in heaven”¹ – which is not temporary but eternal—which is the difference between being cursed and blessed! Woah! And Wow!

¹Luke 6:24-26   ²Luke 6:20-22   ³Luke 18:24-25