It may be hard at times to see the events in our lives as blessings.

“When you look at anything, your brain asks, ‘Danger? Or opportunity?’” said Bob Sitze, keynote speaker.

Addressing the assembly theme in a whimsically humorous way, Sitze, the ELCA Director for Hunger Education, talked about being blessed, sharing blessings, and responding with thanks to the blessings we receive. Using the image of a sneeze and our usual response to it (“God bless you”), Bob pointed out that this response and its global variations, all invoking some kind of blessing, arose centuries ago because sneezes meant illness and often death.

“Many of us see our lives as full of dangerous sneezes,” Bob said. We don’t see the blessings that are there even in the face of tragedy and difficulties. “Danger? Or opportunity? It's all how you look at it,” he said. “You never know who’s blessing you, and you never know whom you’re blessing,” he said. “Thank you for being the invisible people of God — out there sluggin’ evil in your daily lives.”