Blessed

 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12) 

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. (Theodore Roosevelt, The Man In The Arena) 

One of the ideas that writers of fiction are told is that what will make the story interesting to the reader is if everything is stripped away from the hero. Having lost everything and with nothing really to be gained, the hero is the one who robs his enemy of victory by refusing to surrender. That is the heart and soul of Theodore Roosevelt’s quote. I suspect that non-fiction writers practice roughly the same thing with the main point(s) of their books or should.

The reason Roosevelt’s speech is so quoted is that it touches on something we understand to be true. The hero isn’t the person who talks someone into applying for a credit card (as was proclaimed at a store where I once worked.) The hero is someone who at least risks significant loss in pursuing something bigger than him/herself or on behalf of someone else. And this is what the prophets did in the Old Testament. They were often abused, tortured, or killed because they stood by what God told them to say. The irony was that the Jews who praised the prophets as heroes were the descendants of the ones who killed the prophets.

But this is why Jesus can describe those who suffer like the prophets as being blessed. Being blessed isn’t about sitting in mindless peace, untouched by events. It’s about having a positive future despite – or even because – of the struggles faced. We may not physically live to see what happens, but too often, we forget that when our body dies, we do not. Death may provide the greatest victory, and it does provide the greatest blessing for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I’ve sometimes remonstrated with folks who “can’t wait to die and get to heaven” because, more often than not, it seems to be escapism to me. It’s not that they want heaven. They just want to not have to face the mess of this life. And I understand getting tired of here. But it comes to mind that we should be more aware of heaven as being there. We should keep it before our minds that this – whatever this is – is not the end, it’s not the goal, it’s not our destiny.

What happens here matters – but what matters more is what the things that happen here produce in us. And it won’t be “for nothing.”

Lord, help us to live connected lives, to see today as leading inevitably to a tomorrow that will be a blessing in our lives, no matter how hard today may seem. Give us a “heavenly mind” so that we may remember the promised blessing that is given to those who are persecuted, insulted, and mistreated in Your name.