Tag: Blessed to be a blessing

Distracted…

I can easily get distracted and sidetracked. I’m guessing I’m not alone. Though never diagnosed with an attention disorder, I would be willing to bet I might land somewhere on the spectrum. The advent of the internet has not been my friend. My top CliftonStrengths (Intellection, Connectedness, Ideation, Context, Input) make me ripe and susceptible to internet rabbit trails that deter me from intended purposes. Again, I’m guessing I’m not alone. It must be a human vulnerability that the satan is well aware of. Distraction might be his best work!

Consider how he distracted the original humans in the Garden.

They were tasked with caring for part of God’s kingdom, the earth they inhabited. The satan distracted them with a shiny object, and they bit. The result? They lost focus of the original intent to serve as kingdom stewards. It reminds me of the old saying:

When distracted by the swarming alligators, it’s hard to remember that the original intent was to drain the swamp.

Not only did Adam and Eve lose sight of their calling, but their action created fissures in the kingdom on Earth. The created order was broken. So, God embarked on a project of new creation. His desire to continue to use his created image-bearers to be stewards and workers in the redemption project, even though they got distracted, is fascinating. As discussed in the last post…

God chose Abram and his descendants to be catalysts in the redemption of the kingdom. They would be workers for God’s kingdom. God would bless Abram and his descendants for the express purpose of, in turn, blessing the image-bearers around them. Abram and his offspring were to help reestablish God’s will “on earth as in heaven.” Ambassadors for the kingdom, as it were.

Well, the people got distracted again. They appeared to have lost sight of the original intent as ambassadors. They liked the idea of being blessed. But being a blessing to the peoples around them somehow got lost. As we all tend to do, they got distracted by helping God in ways he didn’t ask. A synopsis…

God promised Abram that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore. Accordingly, God renamed him Abraham, meaning “father of many [nations].” Abraham got distracted by the reality that he and his wife, Sarah, were very old, beyond child-bearing age. Taking things into their own hands, Sarah suggested that Abraham sleep with her servant, Hagar. Cultural custom allowed such an arrangement, deeming the child “theirs” if the baby was birthed onto Sarah’s lap. Abraham bit, and Ishmael was born.

Ultimately, Abraham and Sarah had a child of their own – Isaac. Once Issac was weaned (evidence that he had avoided the dangers of infant mortality?), Sarah had Hagar and Ishmael sent away. But God, in his generosity, took care of them in their exile. Arabic Islam tradition holds that Abraham fathered their nation through Ishmael.

Issac fathered twins Jacob and Esau. Esau was the first-born and thus the rightful heir. Jacob was a hustler and a deceiver (his name actually means “deceiver”). Apparently, his mom, Rebekah, was a deceiver too. Together, they tricked Isaac into giving Jacob, her favorite, the first-born blessing.

However, the heir apparent to the Abrahamic “blessed to be a blessing” calling got sidetracked for a few years. A lot of years, in fact. Escaping the wrath of Esau, Jacob ended up on his uncle Laban’s sheep ranch. The hustler negotiated a deal with Laban for the hand of his daughter Rachel, who he fell for down at the watering hole. Jacob agreed to work for his uncle for seven years to earn Rachel as his wife. However, Laban tricked the trickster, and Jacob found himself married to Rachel’s sister, Leah. Argh!

Long story short, Jacob ended up with Rachel as his wife, too, but it cost him several more years of his life serving Laban. As you can imagine, being married to two sisters created some interesting familial dynamics. God’s image-bearing ambassadors were not only sidetracked but appeared headed for derailment. Ultimately, the now humbled Jacob returned with his dysfunctional tribe to his homeland to face Esau. Much to his surprise, Esau ran to embrace Jacob!

(As I write, I can’t help but think of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal brothers. In this case, it is the older brother who surprisingly runs to embrace the wayward younger brother. Perhaps he was stepping into the role his late father once held.)

After returning to his homeland, Jacob wrestled with a man (some think it was God or an angel) for an entire night. (Who among us hasn’t wrestled with God in some manner over the years?) Jacob would not let the man go, even after experiencing a significant hip pointer. He demanded God’s blessing, WHICH HE RECEIVED! God, in his generosity, continued to work with his flawed image-bearing ambassadors and recognized Jacob as the rightful heir.

God renamed Jacob “Israel.” Israel means “let God prevail” or “struggle with God.”  God changed Jacob’s name to signify that he had become someone different and was now seeking God instead of relying on deception.

The name Israel was significant because it represented the covenant between God and Jacob and the promise that he would receive the same blessings as Abraham and Isaac.  The mission of Abraham’s descendants to bless the nations was back in motion. The redemption project was back on track.

Or was it?

95 Years, 262 Days

That’s how long my mom, Gloria Hinkle, lived on this earth before passing into Eternity on June 9, 2021. I was privileged to give the Meditation at her Memorial Service. This is what I shared with friends and family…

What does one say when privileged to speak at his 95-year-old mom’s memorial service?  Frankly, it’s something I’ve pondered over the past several years, knowing such an opportunity might present itself.  Every time I would think about it, I honestly came up blank.  Knowing that our creative juices get going under deadline, I posed a question to my mom.  Shortly after she turned 95, I asked her what her target completion date was.  Mom just grinned and said emphatically, “well, not 100!”  Turns out that her target completion date was 95 years, 262 days.

There was one theme that kept running through the minds of my siblings, spouses, and me as we shared with friends and extended family the events of the last week of mom’s life.  It was present again last night at the visitation.  That theme was an overwhelming sense of blessing.

More than wondering what I might say at my mom’s memorial service, I wondered what the last days of her long-lived life might look like.  It was an absolute blessing that mom’s mind was sharp to the very end.  It was an absolute blessing that she did not suffer or linger in a vegetative state.  She died peacefully, a week after a minor stroke – truly a blessing.

Last Friday, a week ago yesterday, mom was able to leave the hospital to return to Guardian Angels Care Center, which has been her home for the past four years.  When she left Mercy Hospital, there was a sense that, with some therapy, she might be able to live for quite some time and be able to communicate adequately.  But mom’s target completion date wasn’t 100.

Looking back, we suspect she used all of her remaining energy to get back home to the Care Center, to be among those who had cared for her these past years, to be with those who were an absolute blessing to her.  To any Guardian Angels representatives among us today, please know what a blessing you have been to her and to us, her family – especially during a pandemic.

The concept of blessing is foundational to our faith and is dispersed throughout the Bible, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.  Many Psalms include phrases like, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”  We are quite familiar with the benediction that begins with, “May the Lord bless you and keep you…”  In his Sermon on the Mount, in the part we know as The Beatitudes, Jesus described those who are blessed in God’s economy – the poor, the hungry, those who mourn, etc.  In that same Sermon he also told his followers to bless those who curse them.

Several years ago I was contemplating the fact that in the Old Testament, blessings seemed to be a two-way affair – God blessing humanity and people blessing God.  As I started to look at occurrences of the word “bless” in the Old Testament, I discovered that God was the original “blesser”…

After creation, God blessed Adam and Eve. After creation, God also blessed the Sabbath. After the flood, God blessed Noah in a similar fashion as he blessed Adam and Eve. Noah, then in turn, responded with, “Blessed be the Lord,” the first example of humanity blessing God

On the surface, it kinda sounds like a mutual admiration society – God and humans blessing each other.  I figured there must be more to it than mutual admiration.  Being a dabbler in Hebrew (the operative word is “dabbler”), I decided to see what I could uncover about this word bless. This is what I discovered – the basic Hebrew word for bless is barak. Barak is the word for “knee” and implies kneeling.

This makes some sense. Throughout history, one approached royalty on bended knee – out of reverence, out of respect, out of humility. In Philippians 2, we read “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” – bended knee. So we bless God with great reverence, literally and figuratively, on bended knee.

So, blessing God makes sense but what of God blessing us? What does that look like?  What immediately comes to my mind is the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. During his last Passover meal with his disciples (which we know as the Last Supper) we read…

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist…and began to wash his disciples’ feet.”

Picture this! Jesus knew full well who he was as God incarnate – that all power and authority had been given to him.  This Jesus showed the full extent of his love and began to wash his disciples’ feet, presumably on his knees. Picture it!  The God of the universe, the Lord of lords, the King of kings on his knees, serving his own creation!  What a picture of blessing!  And what a picture of servitude!

Jesus was simply fulfilling and living out God’s vocational call of Abraham a few thousand years before.  God told Abraham he would bless him and his descendants so they, in turn, could be a blessing to the rest of the world.  The task of the Israelites in God’s kingdom project was to simply bless those around them as they were blessed by God.  Pretty simple, pretty straightforward, and pretty clear.  They were blessed to be a blessing. 

When he washed his disciples’ feet, Jesus modeled for his followers what he wanted them to be about – blessing others by serving them.  Makes me think of the two great commandments – Love God, love (or bless?) others. How can we love others?  By blessing them, by serving them.

Looking back, I think that our mom understood the “blessed to be a blessing” concept more than we may have realized.  Over the years, she quietly served those around her – often from her kitchen.  On dairy farms in the mid-20th century, the role of the housewife was to serve the workers of the farm, which involved more than just meals.  Clean clothes miraculously showed up in our drawers. As did patched jeans.  Mom’s quiet servitude was a blessing to all of us.

That blessing, that quiet servitude, spilled over to those around her – to her neighbors, to her church, to her community (I believe mom was a charter member of the CAER board, the Elk River, MN, food shelf).  And it spilled into Guardian Angels Care Center four years ago.  We know she was a blessing to many there because the staff told us as much.  One small example of mom blessing the staff at the Care Center:  She weekly served the activities staff, setting up for Thursday Bingo.  (It was important for us to plan our visits with her as to not conflict with her weekly job.)

Blessed to be a blessing.  What a amazing concept! God ordained the idea with Abraham.  Jesus fulfilled it and passed it onto his followers.  As a follower, Gloria Hinkle quietly lived it out.  What might our world look like of we all took to heart our God-given vocation to simply be a blessing to those around us?  God, help us do exactly that!  Amen.