Blessings from Above??

blessing: n. 1.The act that one blesses.2.A short prayer said before or after a meal.Grace.3.Something promoting or contributing to happiness,well-being,or prosperity.


luck: n. 1.a force that brings good fortune or adversity. The events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual. 2.Favoring chance.




My life is full of blessings. And for this I am very lucky. During this time of year everyone is taking personal inventory of everything in their lives that they are thankful for. I too am thankful for everyone that blesses my life. Blessings can be defined as nothing more than a smile on someone's face when you're having an off day. Someone buys you a cup of coffee,or just being thoughtful enough to hold the door open for you when entering a building. Many times over in my life people have blessed me continuously. I am truly blessed. 


The problem for me is I absolutely hate using the word(s) Bless(ed)(ing). This word comes with a lot of baggage and implications. I for one have refrained from its usage over the years. There seems to be religious implications by using this word(s) 99.6% of the time once used. The religious among us has "hi-jacked" this word for their heavenly justification that blessings come from above. I realize this is not always the case but the word(s) have become synonymous with God's goodness.  Let's pause here and reflect on the term "hi-jacking":


It seems to me that the religious crowd have adopted the word bless as a direct and divine cause. Ok...I'm cool with that. You can have it. I'm quite sure the bible mentions blessed many times over. A simple definition of the word takes on a completely different meaning once the word is "hi-jacked". Take for example the word gay. The homosexual community has completely re-defined this word to a completely different meaning than its original definition. 99.6% of everyone that uses the term gay is referring to homosexuals.


gay: adj. 1.happily excited.Keenly alive and exuberant:having or inducing high spirits. 2.homosexual;of,relating to,or used by homosexuals.


Somewhere along the way the homosexual community "hi-jacked" the word gay to re-define themselves. You rarely ever hear anyone refer to their happiness as being gay. Only on the Flintstone's cartoon do we ever hear "We'll have a gay ole timeeeee!" at the end of the theme song. Therefore the heterosexual community has discontinued the use of the word gay when describing their happiness. 


Just as I, the non-believer in deities, have discontinued the usage of the word blessed as so no one will mistake or confuse me for being religious. But this wasn't always the case.


I was living out my early to mid-twenties and still proclaiming how blessed I was from God. As my twenties came to a close I started to wonder with plenty of confusion why God would continue to bless a man that is full of skepticism,doubt,uncertainty, and disbelief. I mean....Consider this: There are people sitting in his house of worship on any given Sunday that are far more less fortunate than I am. And yet I receive more blessings than they.


Consider: The church I grew up in. The entire congregation was on the same sheet of music as far as our religious beliefs. We sang the same hymns,prayed the same prayers,heard the same sermons,etc. And yet there were families in that church (...and yours too) that were more "blessed" than others. A family on welfare...a middle class family...and an extremely rich family. The entire economic spectrum was represented in that congregation and yet God was showing favoritism when issuing out blessings. Someone explain this! Was one family out praying the other?  


Dr Sam Harris....you have the floor:
  "This kind of faith,is really the perfection of narcissism....
"God loves me,don't ya know? He cured me of my eczema.He makes me feel so good while singing in church. And just when we had given up hope,He found a banker who was willing to reduce my mother's mortgage"... 
Given all that this God of yours does not accomplish in the lives of others.Given the misery that is being imposed on some helpless child at this instant...This kind of faith is obscene. To think in this way is to fail to reason honestly or to care sufficiently about the suffering of other human beings"


The message should be crystal clear. Your blessings do NOT come from above. Considering this world you live in if full of suffering and human misery at any given moment. You would think this would give Christians pause before they add fuel to the arrogant fire that drives the belief that God wants them to be completely blessed. Take a moment this Thanksgiving to realize your blessings are purely by chance. Luck. Consider yourself lucky that you have what you have. Whether its a little or a lot. And perhaps take a little time to bless others. Without human blessings...We'd have no blessings at all!


Have a gay Thanksgiving everyone! :)