Chosen day 5
from you version

I nearly dropped the book when I read David Bentley Hart’s translation of the word “blessed” in the Bible. The famous scholar talks about how blessed has lost its meaning in our culture: it is used more or less as “lucky” or “fortunate.” Instead, Hart argues the real meaning would be much closer to our word blissful or a state of enraptured happiness. 

This is what God has done for us in the gospel: He has given every eternal blessing imaginable to us to the point that we are full of bliss! 

Our daily choice, our daily fight, our daily trial is whether or not to remember, realize, and live in this reality. 

And it is not based upon circumstances. It’s really not. A young man, Meisha taught me this in a way I won’t ever forget. 

Meisha was a refugee in a war-torn country. His village and all he had ever known were destroyed by an oppressive army, and he was forced to be a porter, carrying the supplies of a soldier through a rainy jungle while staring down the barrel of a gun—much like in Jesus’s day when a Roman soldier forced a person to carry his gear for a mile. 

Then one day a soldier forced Meisha at gunpoint to dismantle a land mine. The mine exploded, and Meisha lost both hands and both eyes in an instant. They left him there, thinking he was dead, but he did not die. 

Several years ago, someone shared with him the story of the suffering Savior. He identified with a God who knew his pain. His life was gloriously transformed. 

Meisha is so blissfully excited about the Gospel that he has people lead him from refugee camp to refugee camp so that he can share the Gospel with those who have not heard about Jesus. 

Meisha’s joy is infectious. He is far happier than most people who can see, have both hands, and don’t live in survival poverty in a refugee camp. His joy springs from his gratitude for the cross. Meisha knows in a short time he will be with Christ forever. 

Meisha models this by spilling out Gospel bliss in the middle of a refugee camp. He embodies the writings of the apostle Paul, who said, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).