Do you ever look at your life and ask yourself, “Is this what I signed up for”?

For decades, I chased the elusive promise of “blessing”. I wrestled with God, unwilling to let go until He blessed me. The results have been…unexpected.

More and more lately, I’ve thought “This isn’t what I signed up for”.

The problem was my definition of “blessed” was vastly different from God’s. And I didn’t appreciate the difference between the action (“He blessed them”) and the identity (“Blessed is the one who…”).

Things started to shift for me when I learned that every Ancient Hebrew word has a concrete meaning: an action you can do, or something you can experience with your five senses.

אשר, a Hebrew word that we translate “blessed” or “happy”, has at it’s core a picture of being held in the teeth, stretched, and straightened. Imagine what happens to a coiled rope if you pick it up, hold one end between your teeth and pull. All the kinks are straightened through pressure. That straightening under pressure is what Jesus meant when He said “blessed”.

That’s radically different from what we’ve been taught, and lately it’s made me think twice about calling anyone blessed! But stretching and straightening is how He brings about those other traits we associate with blessing.

It’s a slippery slope for me. I don’t want to have a martyr mentality, or make suffering an idol. But this process is how God works His righteousness in us. Because the same Hebrew word that means “happy” and “blessed” also means “righteous”.

If I want to be righteous according to God’s standards, it involves letting Him straighten everything that’s skewed in me. Pressure is how He conforms me to His image. Nothing is conformed to anything without pressure.

Other Hebrew words mean “blessed” too, but they describe an action (so you can still say “Bless you!” when someone sneezes). אשר describes an identity. I don’t have to break a sweat for God to “bless” me. But if I want to be blessed, He will press, pull, and stretch me every which way.

This goes way beyond blessing. Because so often I’m seeking something external to happen to me or for me, but God wants to transform something in me.

That’s what I signed up for. Even on my worst days, it’s what I want.
When have you been stretched and become blessed as a result?