Poor in Spirit

3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3

Jesus came directly from his test in the desert and taught. He introduced the kingdom of heaven to people, healing and teaching. The crowd grew, forcing him from the synagogues to the side of a mountain, where he described kingdom life.
The first thing he says is that those who have every reason to be angry, depressed, frustrated and giving up should be happy. Blessed are the poor in spirit, he says. As it says in the Message, "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope."
Think of what spirit is here. If you had pep rallies in high school, the goal was to increase the spirit of your team. There were cheerleaders, music, cheering crowds and encouragement. Signs were hung to give confidence in the team. The enemy was usually given some sort of insult and sometimes mascots were even stolen to reduce the opponent's morale.
Unfortunately, life isn't like that. We don't have people at our side at all times cheering us on and playing our song to lift us up. The band Survivor isn't following us to work singing Eye of the Tiger for us. We have to face life alongside each other, doing what we can to encourage one another when we can and sometimes we're so busy entering our own troubles, we forget others.
Day after day we struggle to make everything work out and we grow weary doing it. Then Jesus says we should be happy. What?!?
John the Baptist said it well. I must decrease and he must increase. When we're at the end of our rope, when we have nothing left to give of ourselves, that is where God increases and we see his power. At that point, we realize that we aren't doing anything on our own and we don't have to dao anything else on our own. God is there. We are blessed. Now, if only we'd remind ourselves of this.