Blessings, Take off Your Disguise

            One of my favorite Christian songs is “Blessings” by Laura Story. I think the chorus pretty much sums up what the song is about. Listen to it here.

            The song is about how sometimes the most difficult parts of our lives might really just be God’s blessings in disguise. Like the chorus says, the raindrops, tears, sleepless nights, and trials might really be blessings in disguise and that’s why we can’t see them.

             I want to take that one step further.

I think any blessing in general can seem like it’s in disguise if I’m going through a tough time. If I’m having a good day, for example, I’ll be more aware of all of the good things in my life. If I’m having a bad day, though, all of a sudden all I can see are the bad things and not the good.

            The perfect example would be comparing how I am now to when I was depressed. When I was depressed, I was blinded. I couldn’t see any of the blessings I had. My family, friends, school, job, etc. seemed like nothing to me, perhaps even more of a burden.

            Now, all I can see are my supportive family and friends, my great education at my school, my job that will look great on my resume for when I’m older, etc. I am so thankful for all of these blessings that I know so many people unfortunately don’t have.

            What changed, then?

            It wasn’t the blessings that were different. I still have every single blessing now that I had when I was depressed. It was me. My depression wouldn’t let me see what I still had. All of the blessings I had seemed like they were disguised as trials, but they weren’t really. I was the one, subconsciously, giving these blessings a disguise.

            Personally, whenever things are going well in my life, I’m extremely grateful for all of the blessings I have. When things are not going so well, I become blinded and suddenly every blessing seems like it’s gone. When things start to go well again, though, the disguise comes right off and I am grateful for all I have again.

            I honestly wish I didn’t do that.

            From now on, I think I’m going to try something. Every time my life seems to be full of nothing but problems, I’m going to take a minute and think about all of the blessings I still have in my life. If I can’t see them, maybe it’s because I’ve given them a disguise they don’t deserve.

            I’ll just ask God to help me see through the disguises to find His blessings. I know they’ll always be there if I look hard enough.