“You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.
God’s kingdom is there for the finding.
You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.
Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.
You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.
Joy comes with the morning.” (Luke 6:20-21).

If you’re familiar with the Beatitudes, then you know the Kingdom of God often turns normal expectations upside down. Jesus’ ideas of what it means to be blessed run contrary to just about every book on success and leadership that has ever been published. But I think Jesus was onto something (to put it mildly).

To be blessed above all means to possess the favor of God. Sometimes, that means riches and wealth; sometimes not. Sometimes, that means abundant health; sometimes not. Sometimes, that means a clear-cut path to career and personal success; sometimes not.

What it means is a very real and tangible sense of the nearness of God, even when you can’t feel God or see God. You know at a gut level that goes beyond emotion or reason that God is there. You’d rather go through poverty and mourning with God than have riches untold or be the king of a vast domain apart from God.

To be blessed means to know your deep need of God, to mourn over the sinfulness and brokenness of the world (as well as your own), to have a steady supply of strength that comes from God, to want God’s righteousness more than anything else, to cherish lovingkindness, to have pure heart for God, to bring peace that comes through the gospel, and to suffer for the sake of loving Jesus more than the world.

To live out the Beatitudes is to be like Jesus, and to be like Jesus is to live out the Beatitudes.