| | God Blesses Me More Than You!It was a sunny day at Berkeley, as students bustled their ways to class in their shorts and flip-flops. My Alaskan rommate told me that it would still be cold and wet in back in her home state. I, feeling so blessed by God for this nice weather and that I don't live in Alaska, shouted, "God blesses me more than you, you moose-hunting pussies!"
As I walked to class and passed by a frat house, I saw this frat boy being butt-raped by a group of monkeys. I, feeling blessed by God that I'm not the one being butt-raped by a monkey, shout, "God blesses me more than you, you monkey lover!"
Well the anecdote above is not a true at all. My roommate is from China, and frat boys here at Berkeley perhaps are only raped by drunk girls or by their drunk bros. My twisted mind always makes up weird stories to demonstrate my point.
What I'm trying to point out in this blog is something that has been bugging and irritating me eversince I was little and attending churches. I've heard so many testimonies of people who, in their own opinions, were praising God and celebrating His Blessings. All of them had said and written things like, "I'm thankful that God blesses me with my job, school, etc.. ."
ONE THING THAT I'VE ALWAYS FOUND FISHY IN PEOPLE'S TESTIMONIES of praising God and counting His blessings is that they always have to mention or bring in other people who seem less fortunate than them. Thus, the testimonies would turn out to be something like this:
"I saw many starving and sick children when I was in Africa...I feel so blessed by God for being in America and having so much junk food to eat and get fat. . ."
By human nature, we tend to appreciate more of what we have or what we've been blessed with in the face of unfortunate and destitute people. But in the context of celebrating God's blessings, the implications of mentioning people who seem less fortunate than us are grave and besmirch the celebratory image of God's blessings.
We can be all be smart-ass lawyers and work our way around it by saying, "the point or the bigger picture of this testimony is to praise God and celebrates his Blessings..It doesn't matter who has more blessings or not..."
Yet if the bigger picture or the intention is to celebrate God's blessings, why do we need to mention less fortunate people at all? Sure we may have good intentions when we give testimonies, but a good intention doesn't necessarily mean a good execution. In fact, some of the most evil things in the world are carried out or executed on the ground of the greatest intentions.
So what are the implications of mentioning unfortunate people in the testimonies of celebrating God's blessings and praising Him, regardless of our good old intentions?
1) It makes it seem like the people who seem less fortunate than us aren't as blessed by God as us. In reality, this may not be true at all. The old,feeble looking man fixing your plant early in the morning may be the owner of a successful landscaping company, and thus ten times richer than you.
2) By implying that they aren't as blessed as us, we inadvertently create this superiorty/inferiroty complex or image.
Overall, blessings aren't something we can quantify and give a fixed meaning to. Some people define God's blessing as having a lot of money and a big house,while others see it as a simple life with happiness. It's different throughout people and cultures with a complex array of different experiences and beliefs.
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| | Posted 5/11/2008 6:11 PM - 3 comments
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