This is not an original idea, but in a pleasure-driven society, it is an idea worth re-visiting. To begin, are you happy? If you answer “yes” then congratulations. You have achieved the American Dream. If you answer “no” then walk to the nearest book store, and buy a book about achieving happiness. Lose that weight. Take that vacation. Find that lover. Whatever you do, get happy.
My next question is: why are you worried about being unhappy? Is there something fundamentally wrong or sinful about this state? No, there is not.
It has come to my attention that life would be easier if I just didn’t care. If I didn’t care that my brother and his wife had lost their first child, if I didn’t care that my grandfather died, if I didn’t care that my uncle was in the hospital not responding to treatments for pneumonia, then life would be a lot less painful. Then again, that wouldn’t be much of a life.
Have you thought about how hard it is to love? Love bears all things; love believes all things; love hopes all things; love endures all things. To love is a tall order. It hurts, but it defines life.
To end, I ask permission to grieve. Let me not seek pleasure for awhile, because that is an okay thing to do.
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3 comments:
Meredith,
There is a song that I think conveys exactly the deep down feeling you seem to be having right now. The feeling, not that life is all bad, but that it hurts so much to have what God has given you taken away. God blesses us with little bits of the 'sacred' and when they are taken away because of the fallen state of this world it hurts so, so much.
It is ok to grieve. Just try to let God hold you, too. Let yourself continue to experience God's blessings even as you mourn what you have lost.
Here are some of the lyrics:
"We're asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it's unfair
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held"
The song is called Held and it is by Natalie Grant
Mia, thank you for your encouraging words. Life truly is not all bad, and God is good. We can rest in His peace, which surpasses all understanding.
Amen, sistah! After all, there is a time to mourn and a time to weep (along with a time to rejoice and a time to laugh). It's silly of us to think that just because we're in America and things are "good" that somehow biblical wisdom no longer applies. No matter how stable our country is, we still live in a sin-stained world. And that is truly reason for grief.
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