Systemic Blessedness

A couple of subscribers have noted that no posts have been added to this blog for a couple of months now.  All is well – but things have been oddly hectic and life has been distracting.  Today I am not distracted.  The Bjerkaas family is quarantined as one of us was exposed to covid.  But you know what the Bible clearly teaches: “God works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”  (Romans 8:28).

That verse has actually been going through my mind quite a bit of late.  Last week I conducted services for one of my oldest parishioners – Marge Bancroft was 98 years old and succumbed to some combination of pneumonia and covid.  Romans 8:28 was her favorite scripture and I was asked to speak about that verse at her memorial service.  And in thinking back on Marge’s life, and her attachment to that verse, I have been thinking about my own systemic blessedness.

The word systemic is something of a trigger these days.  My use of the word here is not intended to be provocative, my use of the word is due to it being the most appropriate word I am aware of.  According to dictionary.com, the word systemic has two definitions that are particularly appropriate for understanding Romans 8:28.  These are: (1) of or relating to a system, especially when affecting the entirety of a thing; and (2) relating to or noting a policy, practice, or set of beliefs that has been established as normative or customary throughout a political, social, or economic system.

Now consider what the word system means.  Again from dictionary.com:  an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole.

Think for a moment then about who you are.  What are the things or parts that make you that person? And think broadly.  What abilities and disabilities, opportunities and obstacles, successes and failures have contributed to forming the complex unity that is you.? Think about relational and familial circumstances, your economic situation, your unique cultural or ethnic contexts and attributes.  These are all ‘things’ that contribute to you being the unique bearer of the divine image that you are.  And God’s word informs you that in all of these ‘things’ in your life, God is providentially working for your good.

The word ‘all’ is a big word.  The apostle makes it clear that we are to understand this word in the largest sense conceivable when he goes on a few verses later to say that “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:38-39).

In God’s providence and by his design, all of the things that contribute to your pilgrimage through this life are part of his purpose to bless you and not to harm you (Jeremiah 29:11).  Even when others actively and willfully seek your harm, God is in control securing your eventual and eternal blessedness (Genesis 50:20).  There is absolutely nothing about you or your life that can separate you from the grounds and source of your blessedness – the love of God; and there is nothing about your life that God is not actively “working together” for your good.

You, dear Christian, live in a world in which God himself is engaged in the business of systemically blessing you.  Whatever else you may think about the rights and wrongs being perpetrated by man against man in every conceivable relationship, never forget that the defining characteristic of the most important system in which you and I “live and move and have our being” is one in which God is working all things for our good.  His gracious favor is being expressed to you either directly or indirectly through every single thing – all things.  And there is nothing – no thing, that can separate you from the source of that wonderful blessing.   You are systemically blessed.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas