Blessed to Be a Blessing; Given so that We might Give

It snowed where I am staying today. And when I got to my destination this morning, I got stuck in the snow. A friend, and four others came and pushed me out; so I managed to get to my first session on time, if a bit flustered. After the session was over, I went for a drive, I got my head cleared, had lunch and then went for the afternoon session. When returning to my hotel, I slipped and slid through the snow: I couldn’t get to my parking space! Luckily, there was a resident, and fellow conventioneer, who had heard my plight, so happened to have two shovels, and between he and I we got it parked! In the process, we were able to help others through the snow, and even helped park the lady at the reception desk who had her car stuck last night! This morning, and this afternoon, I was helped in big ways. I was able to pass it forward (In other ways, too, but I do not want to sound like a braggart).

I think of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (v3-7)

John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, once said “"You haven't lived today until you've done something for someone who cannot pay you back.” We are comforted so that we can comfort. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing. God gives so we can give away (and show His nature to others). Today, look for the places to be a blessing. Look for the place to give comfort, as you, by Christ and others have been comforted. God’s blessing is meant to be passed on, and pass it on to those who can never repay you, and your reward from the Father (which may never be in a physical compensation) will fill you to overflowing.

Luke 14:1-24

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”