Earlier this week I had an assignment in a class I’m taking to list 100 things I’m grateful for. This was easy for me. When it comes to counting my blessings, I can outlast the Energizer Bunny.
This particular list ranged from clean air, fresh water, and a safe home, to dancing in the car, matching socks, and peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. (Don’t yuck somebody else’s yum. If you try it, you’ll thank me.)
I count my blessings early and often, and I highly recommend it.
Today I want to look at the question:
How can a person BE a blessing?
This week’s Torah portion begins with God telling Avram (later named Abraham) to leave his land, his birthplace, and his father’s house and go to a land that God will show him. God continues by telling Avram:
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. Those who curse you, I will curse, and you (will) be a blessing”
After that, Avram packs up all his possessions, tangible and intangible, takes his wife and his nephew, and they’re off. Thus begins an epic journey that lasts for decades and includes things like…
Avram pimping his wife out to a pharaoh and agreeing to banish a woman pregnant with his child into the wilderness. And let’s not forget that time he took his son to the top of a mountain, bound him to an alter, and raised his knife to kill him.
This guy is a blessing?
To be fair, I only listed his transgressions. He also was known for his hospitality, his fairness in battle, and persuading God not to destroy innocent people along with guilty. And monotheism. But still. I mean, really. Still.
So I’ve been looking at this question: What does it mean to be a blessing? And how do we go about doing it? I’ve come up with two steps, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.
1. Be
2. Be
I know those look the same, but let me break it down.
Let’s start at an easy place. If you’re a parent, you likely feel that your child is a blessing. Though you might be biased here, you’re probably not wrong. At the very least, they’re a blessing to you, right? I mean, vomit and carpool and heartache and all… still a blessing.
I think using a child as an example, whether you’re a parent or not, helps illustrate that the first part of being a blessing is just to be. That’s all. Exist. Each one of us is a miracle, and if a miracle isn’t a blessing, I don’t know what is. By our mere presence we all contribute something unique to the whole.
So, thing one: Be.
Now, let’s assume you’re doing the best you can, because that is all we’re ever doing, really: the best we can in each moment under each set of circumstances. And let’s assume that we’re falling short of perfection, because perfection is an unattainable and inappropriate goal. So let’s assume we’re making “mistakes” as we go along. Hopefully not as egregious as some of Avram’s bigger ones, though the truth is, there are many people in the world doing worse right now.
I don’t excuse or condone dangerous, harmful, hurtful, acts. Of course not. But I do think that it’s possible to be a blessing, even under such circumstances – just as Avram was. And that brings me to the second Be.
I think the second Be is to let others see you being. A different way to say it might be: don’t hide. Be an example. Live loud and proud. Let others see you. The good, the bad, and even the ugly. You never know how someone else might grow from it.
The Torah is filled with stories of real humanity: triumphs and failures. Both. Untold generations have learned from the examples that Avram set. Learned what to do, and what not to do.
In my opinion, that is a blessing.
So, how to be a blessing in two simple steps?
1. Be
2. Be
The first one is easy, the second one… not as easy. Not all dirty laundry needs to be aired all the time. But letting others see us Be is a blessing. When I count the blessings in my life, I count clean air and water and a safe home, but I also count many people; I bet you do, too. And not a single one of those people is perfect. I count them even though their actions have sometimes been less than stellar – sometimes because of that.
I’m going to go make myself a peanut butter and pickle sandwich and thank some of those people for being blessings in my life. Now that you know about this delicious snack, you can, too. Let me know how it goes.
The stories on this website are a selection of the stories compiled into A Story Every Week (Three Gems Publishing, Sept. 2018). Sign up here to get notification when the book is released. It will be free for the first few days of publication.
