Blessings and Woes

Stori and Jules talk about Luke 6:17-26. In this passage we find Jesus teaching about blessings and woes. 

Jules explores how a blessing is often viewed as something people can see or observe from the outside, but in Jewish tradition, blessings are interpreted more as a conduit for potential.

Stori talks about writing her mom’s eulogy and specifically avoiding the idea of feeling blessed by the community’s support because it felt too close to the toxic positivity of “too blessed to be stressed” framing.

They discuss the correlation between believing this is simple cause and effect (because I am poor, I am blessed) and the tendency to glorify, and sometimes even seek out, suffering. They invite us to look and consider where we might find blessings that we wouldnt usually? Jules ends us on a song and a blessing.

Stori Long is a Pastor and Social Media Organizer at Storyline Community in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Julia Nielsen is a Pastor and Sacred Organizer with Leaven Land and Housing in Portland, Oregon.