i have been meditating on Jesus' words, 'blessed are those who mourn'
i've never heard anybody say, 'i want to mourn!' ... not once! i have never heard even a good Christian say those words. obviously we're either not getting the point of what Jesus is say or we're just bad followers of Jesus.
i remember the day that Sadaam was killed very clearly. not because i threw a party, but because Stephanie made me run like 5 miles. we were at my parents house and were sitting around after breakfast when we heard the news, so we switched over to FoxNews and watched the wall to wall coverage on the "fair and balanced network." i remember that there was mass celebration of the death of the cruel dictator from Iraq. everybody was praising the fact that justice had been served.
later, as i was running (which led me to mourn...but that's another story) i began to reflect on the fact that nobody was upset that a human being had just been killed. Sadaam was evil, but he was still a human being, and as a human being he is loved by God. the longer i ran the more i realized that even the death of an evil tyrant was tragic. this alone is worth mourning.
think of all the ways that we human beings, as we try and fix things, actually do more harm.
maybe this is what Jesus is getting at here. blessed are the people that see how screwed up things are and realize that in our vain attempts to fix them, only do more damage. maybe Jesus says they will be comforted because they see the damage and the hurt and the pain that is being proliferated and will be agents to bring them to an end.
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2 comments:
a thoughtful word about saddam hussein--- it also ties in nicely with the notion of loving enemies (not that he is/was my personal enemy or anything) but you get the point.
I think of this mourning idea along the lines of becoming broken by the things that break the heart of God.
thanks for posting.
I remember the night I heard the beatitudes taught not as a list, but as a process.
Sometimes I think along the lines of "blessed are those who mourn" along the lines of me coming to an understanding that I am nothing without God-that I have nothing to do, that I cannot do anything, that every action of mine is done in vain without God.
Great thoughts Dan...I to enjoyed the tie in with the death of Sadaam
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