Blessings in Disguise

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures

In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is given the opportunity to be endowed with all of God's powers for a brief time, seeing as he has been complaining to God (Morgan Freeman) about how easy he seems to have it and how Bruce is being ignored no matter how hard he tries to come out on top. At first, Bruce utilizes those almighty powers to "right a few wrongs in his life" without regard to the consequences.

For example when trying to prepare for a romantic night with his girlfriend, Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston) he hand picks places in the night sky to place stars, often smudging one away with his finger. While the moon is perfect is too far so Bruce tosses an imaginary lasso around it and pulls it closer. It impresses Grace but later on, we overhear reports of unheard of flooding due to an unusual lunar tide in some areas. While Bruce was busy romancing Grace, he fails to realize that his actions caused grief and suffering without his consideration about what he was doing and how it would impact others. By the end of the film however Bruce gets past his selfish whims and finally sees how much good one man can truly do without being endowed with supernatural god-like powers.

It reminded me of the ripple effect otherwise known as the Butterfly effect to some. It is what one seemingly innocent act can do that affects so many people like just our being in someone's life and having a conversation, a simple smile or a random encounter in our mind. But nothing is random in God's world. In fact from the very beginning, He knows how all of our lives will play out. Nothing you do or can do or even intentionally set up to do can surprise God. He knew you would do it before you even thought it up. Pretty amazing right?

Yet often times we fail to see these as blessings in disguise because we are not getting what we believe WE deserve instead. But I challenge you to a 31 day journal experience to capture the every day things that happen in your life and see the many blessings God sends your way in disguise. Consider the busy mom of two young children that has to face dealing with life alone while her husband needs to travel for work. Did you ever stop and consider the blessings that come from that experience aside from the financial ones, like being grateful he has a job. That is not what I am talking about. How about changing your perspective on that a minute.

How about seeing it as the time you get to spend doing some quite reflection and Bible Study without interruption, or having free time to enjoy a book or movie you always wanted to watch but no one else does, time for some personal quiet time for a bath or even a lunch or coffee with a friend without feeling guilty of spending time away? This is what I am talking about.

Spending time each day to reflect on those simple random things that happen every day and finding the purpose of what they mean as a blessing to you instead. I hope you decide to take me up on this challenge and if you're a Facebook follower of mine, I'll be sharing all my daily blessings I discover on my page so won't you join me?

If you're a Twitter fan, come follow me as well. I'll be tweeting those out to you throughout the day as well. You just never know how much it can change your perspective on your life and what happens to you every day!

Walking by faith means being prepared to trust where we are not permitted to see. ~ John Blanchard