Friends,

This week we turn to Rev. Don Rose for our inspiration (brother of Frank Rose).  He served the same church I did in London, and they worked together on the Open Road Ministry (visiting different groups around the UK) and the British Academy Summer School - which Frank founded.  Today he reflects with us on the importance of counting...and considering what we count...to our spiritual life.

Love and Peace,

Ethan

A time-honored saying or piece of advice is "Count your blessings." We might rather say, "Count the Lord's blessings." Even on the very external plane, there are more than enough blessings to count. We have so much, and the poor farmer or the farmer's servant has measurably fewer things than the king and paradoxically has more as he counts his blessings (see Divine Providence 250, Swedenborg).

We can surprise ourselves if we put a little effort into counting blessings as we start including in the list the people who are dear to us, the loves and virtues the Lord grants to us. Sometimes a new appreciation of our blessings comes when we see other people less fortunate than ourselves, perhaps due to health or personal difficulty. And it can be occasioned by our own adversities. A sickness that deprives us for a while occasions gratitude for simple wellbeing to be able to function.

The experience of temptation can result in a new way of looking at our lives. And the Word says that there is an actual inflow of thoughts from heaven that changes our perspective about blessings. We read, "life in the world, which is only for some years, is as nothing compared with life in heaven, which is eternal life; yea, there is no ratio between the time of a person's life in the world and the life in heaven that will continue to eternity. Think if you can (and here we are invited to do some counting) whether there can be any ratio between a hundred thousand years and eternity, and you will find there is none. These with many other thoughts flow in from heaven with those who endure spiritual temptations" (Swedenborg, Revelation Explained 750).

Counting. A miser counts his money. But we sense that the miser is missing out. Does the person who glories in his talents really count his blessings? The prophet said, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord" (Jer. 9:23-24).

Imagine making a list of the best blessings of your life and leaving out the Lord's promises about heaven. "Human life from infancy to old age is nothing else than a progression from the world to heaven, and the last age, which is death, is the transition itself" (Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven 3016). What kind of a list of blessings is a list that leaves out the prospect, the goal, to which the Lord is inviting us? There is a passage with a dramatic ending urging us to think of something and to keep it in mind. "Let the person who wishes to be eternally happy know and believe that they will live after death. Let them think of this and keep it in mind, for it is the truth"(Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven 8939).

Notice that it does not say to bear in mind that you are going to die. It says keep in mind that you are going to live!  When we are thinking with this reality in mind, a numbering or counting takes place in our values. To count things in the internal sense is to "give thought to their quality" (Swedenborg, Revelation Explained 453). Counting means setting in perspective (Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven 10217). When you count you evaluate, and take some things that were at the center of your attention and move them out to the circumference. And you see things which were at the peripheries and bring them to the center.  We ask the Lord to "number our days" that we may apply our hearts to wisdom!