Friday, September 20, 2019

Blessings of Omission

Our lives are full of blessings, but not all of them are obvious. We notice when something good happens to us, but we don't necessarily notice when bad things don't. Sometimes, our blessings take the form of an absence of trials or afflictions (or perhaps the blessings take the form of having enough strength and patience to endure our afflictions so well that we hardly feel them). Life is normally full of trials and afflictions, so when we manage to go an unusually long length of time without experiencing a trial, that, in itself, is a blessing. I might call that kind of blessing a Blessing of Omission. Just as Sins of Omission involve goo things we should have done, but didn't, Blessings of Omission involve afflictions and trials that could have happened, but didn't.

Case in point: My day went alright. Nothing particularly good happened today, but nothing particularly bad happened either. I didn't get in an accident, I didn't have to do anything difficult, nothing went horribly wrong, and that really is a blessing on some level. Compared to bad luck, average luck is good luck. In terms of d20-based table-top role-playing games, a roll of ten or eleven looks great next to a natural one. Similarly, an average day can look great compared to a bad day, and it's worth remembering that bad luck can happen to anyone, at any time, for no reason at all. We are not entitled to average luck or days, which is part of what makes them blessings when we get them.

Blessings of Omission aren't as exciting as more flashy kinds of blessings, but we still ought to be grateful for them. Misfortune is too common for its absence to go unappreciated. I'm glad I had an okay day today, and I thank God for my Blessings of Omission.

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