A Blessed Feeling

Today I feel blessed. Don't ask me why, not because I am trying to withhold information but because I really do not know why.

No it's not the same as happy. Because I am not exactly happy, I have several pressing issues going on right now, so no it definitely is not synonymus with happy. But I feel blessed.

One of the reasons I feel blessed is because I am learning how to trust God in the midst of my storm. Yeah, I know about God and Christianity being tools of ethnic oppression and domination but you know something, it works for me.

I was watching a renowned young preacher on television this morning and while much of his sermon was full of contradiction and rife with hyperbole, I got something out of it.

At one point he said say the name of a friend who is going through something and then say Jesus.

What you have done he said is to call forth the power of Jesus into the broken area of that person's life.

Wow, at first I howled. That shit is funny (you probably should not call stuff in a sermon shit) I thought damn it, I want to make it easy on folk, I need to design a praise machine.

Whenever you in trouble just press a button, and the machine will shout, JESUS. When you feel like moaning flip the switch to Gospel and the choir will moan out JE---SUS----JE---SUS---JE---SUS. If you are feeling a little nasty flip it to hip-hop and it might say Aw F**k, help me Jesus, n-word-a.

I am not making fun of Christians, because I am a sanctified, holy ghost filled man from way-way-way back. I am a "I-really-love-the-Lord,-you-don't-know-what-he's-done -for-me-gave-me-the-victory" type of man. I am not afraid to praise God but I know that in the midst of praise pain exists, somebody is hurting, somebody is crying, somebody is facing a difficult dilemma and the preacher reminded me that there is power in the name, just saying Jesus is therapeutic at times.

It is as easy as that? Heck no, being spirit filled is continuous work and not a one time activity, and living that way is even more of a challenge.

So on a day when happiness is not mine, I feel blessed, I shouted the name JESUS and nothing happened on the outside but something is going on and as the old song says I feel like going on.