You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and his rule. – Matthew 5:3 (The Message)

In order to teach his disciples, Jesus would often go apart from the crowds. One day he took his committed followers up a hillside and taught what is often called the Beatitudes—a listing of blessings that we don’t often realize are blessings. This blessing is at the top of the list.

I like the way Eugene Peterson’s The Message Study Bible says things. The New King James Version says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It’s sometimes hard to tell when we’re poor in spirit but we recognize when we’ve reached the end of our ropes. It can be easier to realize our need of God when there is nothing left in us, and we are emptied out. It’s when we don’t know where to turn next that we often call upon God.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about how we are changed into the image of Jesus from glory to glory. I have found, however, that I float from disaster to disaster. It has been noted that I tend to be a bit hard-headed, and it takes something fairly spectacular to get my attention. I get an idea in my head and start moving forward with the delicacy and finesse of a railroad locomotive at full speed. God and I have had several conversations about this tendency, and I asked him to stop me before I get too far off track.  

The best way to get my attention diverted is to throw a wall up in front of my face and wait until I smack into it. I take heart, however, because I find myself going slower and I’m not running into as many walls! There are some blessings to growing older!

Many of us have heard the old saying, “God helps those who help themselves” and we can rush into helping ourselves without talking it over with God first. This is often when I find myself at a standstill – backed into a corner and not knowing where to turn next.

I don’t think that this scripture means that we need to stay in a state of exhaustion. I think that God would like to see his children happy and filled with energy. I think that the idea is for us to learn to accept that God is running this universe. It isn’t a matter of being resigned to being shunted out of the picture; but it’s more a matter of letting God play the hero while we become the sidekicks. We can be the Barney Fifes to God’s Andy Griffith or maybe we could be Tonto to God’s Lone Ranger. That could be sweet! We wouldn’t have all the responsibility to make things right and we would have a front row seat to watching God fix everything!

Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She has recently published her first book, Jessie’s Corner: Something To Think About, which is now available for purchase. Based on several lesser-known scriptures from the Bible, this is a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.