You Can Be Blessed Beyond Measure

By Wilfred Lewis

Religious and inspirational in tone, the late author's book features scriptural quotations, biblical personalities, testimonies of contemporary subjects, and the use of anecdotes in an simple down to earth style to drive home the message that you can be blessed beyond measure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781304545084

Book preview

Chapter 1

Counting Blessings

I’m going home and count my blessings.  Those words startled me recently at one of my familiar haunts.  On Route 40 in Salem County, New Jersey, there is a sprawling farmer's market interestingly called Cowtown.  There are two gigantic sheds where vendors sell merchandise of every description; there is also a flea market in an open field where additional vendors hawk their bargains.

At one o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon, I was looking at a jewelry stand in the flea market when I heard the words, I'm going home and count my blessings.  My head craned in the direction of the voice that uttered those words, and there he was.  The voice belonged to a vendor who had begun to pack his merchandise in his van, which was parked behind his stand.  His words were uttered in response to a question from another vendor.  Say, John, why are you packing up so early?  John replied to his fellow vendor, I've had a real good morning, and I'm packing up early because I'm going home to count my blessings.  The other vendor retorted, "But John, you know the management of Cowtown don't allow vendors to leave before 3:30 p.m.  You can't leave.  John replied, Listen buddy, I don't care what the rules are today, I've sold most of my stuff already, and I'm going home to count my blessings, understand!"

That exchange between two vendors at Cowtown stuck with me so much, that it triggered my thinking.  I thought about the word blessings in a way that I have not thought about it before.  It reminded me of the song I've heard in church all my life.  As a little boy, I remember hearing my mother playing that song on the piano, or singing it as she did her housework, or washing dishes at the kitchen sink.  I can still hear her high soprano as she sang these words:

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged,

thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings—

name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

My mother had an emphatic way of singing the chorus as she accompanied herself on the piano.  The words of the chorus still have a tremendous impact on my being:

Count your blessings--name them one by one;

Count your blessings--see what God hath done; Count your blessings--name them one by one;

Count your many blessings--see what God hath done.

Ever since that Cowtown incident, I've reflected on what the vendor meant by blessings.  I wondered whether he was a Christian, and whether he recited those words because he learned them as a little boy in Sunday School as I did.  Perhaps he mouthed those words because he heard someone else say them.  Ultimately, he was referring to his immediate good fortune.  This vendor felt blessed because of the good financial returns he obtained from the goods he sold that morning.  Now he was going home to count his blessings despite the rules of the market.  Because he was financially blessed, he would be able to put food on the table and pay his household bills for another week.  I could picture the vendor counting out the dollars for the phone bill that month; I could see him counting out the dollars for the car payment, the house mortgage, the week's groceries, as well as for his children's shoes and clothing.

However, I could not help to wonder whether amid all his counting, would he count