Blessings

I recently heard a song called Blessings sung by Laura Story. Here are the lyrics:

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching(s) of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

This song describes what blessings truly are. Many people only want to see blessings as the "good" things to happen to us. The perfect job. The perfect house. The perfect car. Material things that make us happy. Now this isn't to say that when you find these things, they are bad. It's just that more often we put all of our focus on making ourselves happy through material things.

When we pray, we ask God for what we want. When we don't get those things we feel that God doesn't understand. It seems like everyone sees struggles are things to avoid. To steer away from. Everyone wants the fame, the money, all of those material things. But just take a look at those people who have all of those things... are they really happy? It seems like everyone who has these things are always going through something or another. There are whole tv channels about them: MTV, Entertainment Tonight, reality shows... people trying to get on TV - just to try to cause trouble to get on more TV shows. There are plenty of tabloids, magazine articles. Notice the headlines tend to be negative? Upsetting? People publicly getting mad at other people, just to bring more attention to themselves? Negative attention, it seems like negative attention sells. Pointless drama sells. So, that's what people cause.

So, why do we crave all of the material things so much? These are all fleeting. In the tabloids one day. gone the next.

What isn't fleeting? Blessings. Entering into the sacrament of Matrimony. Finding your calling in life. Enjoying a long conversation with friends. Having your family's support. But, also the ones we don't understand. The tears over the passing of a loved one. The long nights of taking care of sick child. Feeling left behind when your path takes a different route than your friends. Frustrations of not knowing what is coming next. Where you are supposed to be tomorrow.

All of these things help to shape us into the person we become. When we look back on our life, what will we miss more, the drink we didn't have, or rocking our new born baby to sleep? We will remember the people who were there for us through the bad times and the good times. The ones who never left our sides.

What makes your life worth living are the trials... the blessings. God's mercy in disguise.