Are you blessed or bless-ed?

 

Are you blessed or bless-ed?

I admit it; my mind wanders. Sometimes I catch up with it, but often it gets away from me. I let it go because when I follow it I get someplace I never would have found on my own. For example, while listening to a recent sermon (and I was listening, Pastor), my brain latched onto the word “blessed” and took off.

The word, blessed, can be pronounced in two ways. As one syllable, it means “fortunate” as in, we are blessed to have such a fine preacher in our church. Pronounced with two syllables, with emphasis on the –ed, it means, at least in my mind, someone who gives blessings to others. So the question is: Are you blessed or are you bless-ed? 

One of the many email messages circulating for the last few years defines “blessed” pretty well. 

“If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won’t survive the week.  If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are more blessed than 75% of this world.  If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read anything.”

Most of us are very blessed, but how many of us are bless-ed? One who has health is blessed. One who is bless-ed visits the sick. One who is blessed eats well. One who is bless-ed volunteers at the neighborhood free-lunch program. One who is blessed has a beautiful home and a library full of books. One who is bless-ed spends a week repairing homes in Appalachia, makes quilts for cold children in foreign nations, supports a homeless shelter, or teaches reading at an Adult Education center. One who is bless-ed shares his blessings.

Dr. Frank Crane, the master essayist whose series of Four Minute Essays has been inspiring me, must have had a wandering mind too. His mind led him to some great thoughts. In his essay “Greatness” he reminds us that the greatest of all must be “the servant of all.” A great person feels the needs of others and strives to fulfill them. He describes the great as “submerging… losing… giving … feeling… caring.” He defines one’s greatness as “the ability to interpret” and fill the needs of others. A great person is one who is truly bless-ed. 

So my wandering mind led me to this thought: Am I only blessed, or am I blessing others? Not a bad thought to take away from a sermon. Not a bad thought to act on. Blessings given away return as blessings received. The most bless-ed among us will also be the most blessed.