Opus 2025-458: Blessing Guilt

I think there is an emotional/psychological condition called “survivor’s guilt”.  If my memory serves me well it is the feeling someone has when they survive a situation, say a car crash, that killed everyone else and they feel guilty about it.

With that in mind I sometimes suffer from ‘blessing guilt”.  It is a mental attitude that looks around and sees so many people going through hard times and I am still in calm waters.  This morning I caught myself wondering if I would be so willing to praise God if I still lived in California, was recovering from a painful surgery, had complications from that surgery, was behind on my rent and living next door to someone who liked heaven metal.  Would I be filled with praise?

Isn’t it amazing the things we can find to worry about?  God blesses us and we wonder, “What if…?”  I imagine we are a real trial for His patience.  I am quite capable of finding the wrinkles in my freshly ironed underwear.  This must be an exercise in imagination because I have never seen ironed underwear, but I imagine I could find the flaws.  Two things about this:  Why would anyone iron underwear and what difference would it make if they exposed a wrinkle?

So I am resolved to not play the “What if…” game.  I am blessed.  I need to accept that and give God the glory.  If He chooses to bless me out of my sox then who am I to question that decision?  When God gives you chocolate chip cookies don’t complain because he used pecans instead of walnuts.

homo unius libri