Blessed to be a blessing

So every morning when I wake up one of my consistent prayers is, “God, please bless me a lot.” Seriously, someone taught me to ask God everyday to open up the floodgates of Heaven and pour out blessings on my life. When I first thought about this I considered this a pretty selfish thing. I mean…who wakes up every day and includes in their prayers…c’mon God….just bless ME!

But I soon realized that the reason for this prayer was NOT so I could keep that blessing for myself but so that I could be a blessing to others.

I believe we are all blessed so we can a blessing to others.

And I have seen it both ways. I have seen God bless me so I could be a blessing to others and I have definitely seen God bless others in order to bless me.

And I just have to be honest…lately my blessings just seem overwhelming. I have found myself recently wanting to tell God that it is too much…I keep wondering if I should just tell him to redirect his blessings elsewhere because I feel TOO blessed. It’s a weird thought. Although I still have a good ways to go to raise the funds I need to move to Bolivia, the prayers and support that I have already received have been amazing. There is no way that I could have predicted the numerous ways in which God would choose to bless me during this process. I guess that’s the point.

I am really only two months into this and I am already telling God that it is too much. Wow. It is so exciting to think that God is just waiting to bless us…all we have to do is ask.

He has continued to open doors for me. And I feel like this Bolivia thing is a wide open door right now. I keep waiting for the brick wall. I keep waiting for the ground to fall out from under my feet.

God has blessed me with the exact people that I need in my life to make this move a reality. And he also continues to bless me by giving me the opportunity to leave my job at the Alliance Theatre on a high note. Today we found out that we are the recipient of the 2007 Tony Award for outstanding regional theatre. Check out the AJC story here. It is a tremendous honor nationally and is a great testament to all of the artists and staff who have spent a tremendous amount of effort bringing shows to the Alliance stage over the last 40 years.

So as if the Bolivia stuff wasn’t blessing enough, God goes and lets me work hard and grow for five years in my job at the Alliance and lets me leave knowing that I had a hand in contributing to the Alliance’s recognition as outstanding regional theatre in the country.

It’s like He’s saying, “Curt, I have great plans for you as we move forward and walk together in this next season of your life…but hey, nice job at the Alliance.”