"Have a Blessed Day"

"Have a blessed day" has become rather common, as a phone sign-off and an email signature ... and I don’t like it.

First off, what does it mean?

Is it the equivalent of “Good Luck” or “Have a nice day!”? 

I suppose it sounds pleasantly religious ... but theologically, speaking as a Presbyterian, isn’t every day a blessed day?

That is, isn’t God’s hand upon us, God’s love all around us ... even when we walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death ... and the skies are dark, and the rain is cold, and life has turned to shit, as it sometimes does?

I mean, when David is fleeing Saul, Elijah is running for his life and Jesus hangs on the cross?

The Biblical writers are clear - for weal and for woe, in thick and thin, in sick and sin ... God is there, and God’s love is at work in ALL things for good ... surely for those who “love” God, and for everyone else, too, because everyone is connected, and those who “love” God are connected to those who aren’t too sure about it, and those who aren’t too sure are connected to those who want nothing to do with it, and it’s all mixed up, even for those who “love God,” and God’s work is universal, in all, for all, and with all, 24/7.

I have a “blessed” day every day ... whether I know it or not, whether I’m delighted in God’s hand upon my life or thinking that the “weight of glory” might be better served if it were on someone else’s shoulder.

Might it not be better to say, “Your day is blessed, whether you know it or not, even when it’s raining and shit is happening.” Well, maybe, eliminate the fecal-reference, as to not offend the sensibilities of the more piously inclined.

I’d rather someone say, “Have a nice day,” or even “Good Luck!” (which I’m not inclined to say, since it’s a world of faith and not fates in which I live ... wherein love, God’s love, surely not my feeble effort at love, determines things, not luck, or the throw of a die, or the success of a trite christian mantra.

Anyway, it’s slightly irritating, and seems to be “christian code,” ... and I don’t like christian code ... things that play around with God, with how it’s all going, and maybe we can tweak the Ol’ Boy’s nose and get some favor.

I mean, if my day isn’t blessed, what is it?

What’s the alternative?

May your day go to hell in a handbasket because God is pissed at you?

May your craven worldliness be struck down by the wrath of God, so that you’ll turn your life around and come to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ... and then you’ll be blessed?

Or maybe just say, “You better watch out, and if you don’t, you’ll go to hell.” Which might well be a whole lot more honest for those who trade in the blessings of god and believe they have the upper hand in such things.

Or maybe just say: Cordially, and be done with it.

Or maybe add, God’s Peace, if a “religious” note seems appropriate ... as a simple declaration of a universal constant.

Cordially, and God’s Peace.

Tom