Blessings Beyond Money

By Morris DuBose

​Exactly what a blessing is, is sometimes hard to pin down. The low hanging fruit of blessing is money. It’s very tangible nature makes it easy to decide if you’ve been blessed. And handing it out makes it easy to see if you’ve been a blessing. Other blessings are slightly more intangible, and less considered. Most people don’t think of their social status as a blessing, but it is.  Think of a time when you were new. A time when you were nervous.  You were alone. An outsider.

For me, “blessed to be a blessing” is inviting the new person to join me. It’s trying to get to know the person with whom I wouldn’t naturally connect. It’s easier to stand up to a bully, than to sit with an outcast. And since elementary school, one thing that always pricked the Holy Spirit within me was the isolation of others. When the mid-year transfer student came to my high school she sat near the front of the bus and stared blankly out of the window. Looking for all the world that she’d lost her life in a way that didn’t involve death. So, I sat next to her. And she talked about the parts of her family that she had to leave behind. And we became friends. And my friends became her friends.

I didn’t give her money, or shelter, or a job. I gave her the chance not to be a stranger in a strange land. Who in your acquaintance is new, or nervous, or alone, or an outsider? Blessing them will require exactly what you have.