To Be Blessed: An Attitude

I'm over at Patheos today... my column discusses the Beatitudes that we encounter in this Sunday's Gospel. And I share how my own attitude toward them has steadily improved over the years... Here's a tease:

...over time, I was learning that the Christian way is no easy way, but it is a blessed way. For me, beauty, graces, and freedom were yet to be found within those paradoxical Beatitudes, after all.

Maybe that’s why Jesus started the Sermon on the Mount with their counsels. Central to his gospel, they teach the presence of eternal value inherent in the experiences of our daily lives… even the difficult ones.

The Beatitudes are meant to shape and form us -- like “be attitudes” -- the way that Jesus wants us to be. The Beatitudes give us choices to deliberately “be more” than minimalists or skimmers of the surface of life. They dare us to believe in the necessity of being a blessing now in exchange for a blessing yet unseen. This is no immediate transaction. The return on one’s investment is in the hands of Someone else.

The whole article is at "A Word in Season" at Patheos.