What are we talking about? How can we agree what a man is? Can we agree?
Well, what is the description? Can we describe it, discuss it, and come to some understanding?
Here, for your consideration, the idea of… ARE YOU A BLESSING TO OTHERS? In any, and all situations???
Some manly sites call it… PROVIDING… but for today’s discussion, providing, is too narrow of a word, because our brains usually go to the provision of a roof, food and clothes… which then leads to the comment, “Yeah I provide for em’.”
That’s good on the face of it. But let’s go bigger.
Consider the story of Jeremiah the Prophet, and his assistant Baruch, found in the Bible, in the book of Jeremiah.
In chapter 45 we learn that at some point Baruch, the assistant, complains “Woe to me!” He was worn out, groaning, and could find no rest.
If you don’t know the story of Jeremiah I suggest you read it. It was a time of Judgment for Israel. The general populace didn’t appreciate Jeremiah and he faced many a trial and tribulation as a man appointed by God to bring His message to the people… they even threw him into an unused cistern, a pit, with nothing but the clothes on his back and mud up to his knees.
And with him… Baruch. Baruch did not join Jeremiah in the pit… but he suffered along with Jeremiah in all the other sufferings of the day.
So you have Jeremiah, the man of God, going around, diligently about his work… that’s manly.
And you have Baruch, who steadfastly, was Jeremiah’s secretary, assistant, scribe and at one point… he had to deliver the message because Jeremiah was constrained from doing so… also manly.
And yet he complains, he wants something bigger and better.
In chapter 45 God plainly tells him to not go looking for anything greater, “Do not seek them!”
And why not? Because they wouldn’t be there. He was telling him it was a time of judgment.
But what else does he say?
“…but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.”
Baruch had a life, given by God, it happened to land in the middle of some hard times, but a life none the less.
He had a position, a job. He was Jeremiahs assistant.
He had seen God deliver Jeremiah, and himself, over and over.
So… for our discussion today… what if he hadn’t been with Jeremiah? Where would he have found himself during those awful times?
You see Jeremiah was his blessing, he was being blessed by being with Jeremiah, God spoke directly to Baruch through Jeremiah.
Consider yourself truthfully… are you a blessing to others… in all times… good and bad?
Or are you a selfish pr%*k!
No… really think about that. Do you even care?
Being a “blessing” to others covers all of a persons needs not just a roof, food, and clothes.
Would a person be “blessed” just by being around you… maybe at work… you may not realize it… and they may not either… but they benefit just by you being in the room, with you just being you.
So our description of a component to our manliness is one of… are you a blessing to others.
Discussion? Disagreement? Poor use of a Bible story as an example? Look at yourself?
Are you?
Where do you get your fullness from, whereby, others can benefit from the overflow?
I am a blessing to others, because I myself have been blessed.
I have placed “being a blessing to others” on my personal list of qualities that make me “feel” more manly. I can bless others by helping in a lot of different ways.
But mainly it is because I am willing to help you… that allows me to be a blessing to you.
Can you say, “I am a blessing to others, because I myself have been blessed.”
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