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If I were to tell you today that you have been made whole, that you have found peace and that everything is going to be alright, what would you think?  Would you smile, because in that moment you would feel loved?  Would you roll your eyes, because in that moment of receiving worn out platitudes, you would feel overlooked?  Would you get angry, because in that moment you would feel as if nobody really knows you and understands your situation?  Or, in that moment, would you believe me?   

Let’s give it a try.  I want you to know that you have been made whole.  I want you to know that the peace that surpasses all understanding is yours.  And I want you to know that, in spite of everything that is happening in your life, everything is going to be alright. 

Well?  Smiling?  Rolling your eyes?  Angry?  Last, but certainly not least, do you believe me?  The choice is yours.  Yes, you will have your initial, knee-jerk, reaction.  But, once the dust settles, what do you feel about what I just told you? 

Maybe your present situation may or may not affirm what I have told you.  Maybe your present situation may, in fact, be the exact opposite of what I have told you.  Thus, maybe you don’t believe what I have told you. 

This perspective is very understandable.  Yet, since when did you start allowing your present situation to dictate your perspective on all reality?  Who taught you that what you are experiencing, in your present situation, is all that there is to reality?  That your present situation is all that there is to truth? 

You had to learn that perspective.  Someone, something, somehow taught you that perspective.  No child naturally believes that their present situation is all that there is to reality.  If that were the case, no child would ever be able to dream or imagine.  Two qualities that all children are very good at being.  For it’s only in the knowing of and the believing in, that you will ever dare to dream or imagine being whole, having peace and that everything is going to be alright.  That you will ever dare to dream or imagine that your present situation doesn’t define your reality.

Allowing your present situation to define your reality isn’t something new.  This is an age-old, human struggle.  You aren’t alone in this perspective.  It’s hard to believe that if your present situation is far from whole, peaceful and alright, that you will believe that you are whole, peaceful and everything is going to be alright.  Yet, here I go again, you are whole, you are peaceful and everything is going to be alright. 

Jesus, in Matthew chapter 5, put it this way: “You’re blessed when…”  To be blessed means a state of blessing that already exists, in spite of your present situation.  Yes, one can be blessed by their present situation.  (I pray that this happens a great deal in your life!)  But basing your blessedness on your present situation is like building a house on the shifting sand of a beach.  Sooner or later it’s going to collapse into the sea.  On the other hand, basing your blessedness on the certainty of your future, transforms your perspective on your present situation.

If you knew that your future held a financial fortune, wouldn’t that change your perspective on money problems today?  If you knew that your future held a great marriage, wouldn’t that change your perspective on lousy dates today?  If you knew that your future held the job of your dreams, wouldn’t that change your perspective on all the hard work that you need to do today? Everything you experience in your present situation would simply be a stepping stone to the reality that you knew was just up ahead.    

Well, Jesus is teaching all of us the exact same thing.  Your present situation doesn’t define your reality. Your present situation merely defines your present situation.  You’re blessed when you continue to dream and imagine what life is like, beyond your present situation. It’s in this dreaming and imagining that you experience the blessedness that is actually your reality.  And experiencing that reality, that blessedness, is what it means to be living in the kingdom of God right here, right now.  Despite what you are experiencing in your present situation.      

Take a look at Matthew chapter 5:1-10.  Don’t read his words as a must-do list for someone who is trying to be saved.  Read his words as the characteristics of someone (you) who is living in the kingdom of God, right here, right now.  Despite your present situation.  These have been called the Be-Attitudes.  The attitudes that you will be, your true reality, in the kingdom of God.  Despite your present situation.

The good news of Jesus is so much more than simply forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven.  For knowing this, believing this, will make all of your present situations that much more bearable!  For you have been made whole.  The peace that surpasses all understanding is yours.  And everything is going to be alright.  And isn’t that what you’re truly looking for today?