Day 95: The case against blessings

Okay, so let’s say I kneel down and say, “God, thank you for ____________” Just fill in the blank. Literally any good thing can go there.

What does it mean for me to thank God thusly? It means I assume he (just using the pronoun I grew up with) has chosen to give me something good. Or, in the terms of the believer, he has blessed me.

Now what does that mean? For the notion of blessing to have any sense at all, there must also exist its opposite; i.e., cursing, or even simply non-blessing. Which means that in the very act of thanking God, I admit that someone else is not similarly blessed, that I’m rewarded where someone else is not. And, moreover, I’m happy about it.

With every thank you, forced to reconcile God’s goodness with the inequity of his way of doing business.

(This is Day 95 of a 100-day project. For more about When I Was Mormon, read the introductory post. To access older posts, visit latest stories and scroll down.)