I’ll admit, I was skeptical when my friend recommended the CD. “Another teaching on the Beatitudes?” I groaned (not in his presence, of course.) “I’ve heard them all.” Admission number two: I was wrong.
The teacher said something that had never before come to my attention. The phrase “poor in spirit” that Jesus spoke is more rightly translated “desperate.” That gives the message new meaning.
“Blessed are the desperate, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,” said Jesus. I’m all for the Kingdom of Heaven, so maybe I can learn to embrace being desperate.
The road to hope, peace, calm, satisfaction, and the like is the path of distress and despair. Desperation, therefore, is not my enemy – it’s my friend. When I see things becoming dire, I’m really close to finding the Kingdom.
I’m not ready to ask God to bring on the desperation. But when it comes, as it does in every life, I hope I’ll remember this. It might at least make the situation bearable. Who knows, maybe I’ll even be blessed.
(Thanks, Frank, for the CD.)
I have never heard this either – but it hit me as I read it that there have been many times when just living life makes me feel desperate, fearful beyond measure – and the only hope for anything close to hope is God’s Kingdom. Thanks.
Now that I have slept on this idea – I realize that ‘poor in spirit’ has always been confusing to me and I have never felt that way at all. But desperate is very different and I have felt that many times. Thanks for this nugget!!