February 20th

February 20th
So here’s a message I picked up in my early Christian life…
If I am miserable, if I am unhappy, than I am living out my faith wrong.
Okay, if a major tragedy happens, I am allowed to grieve. Within certain parameters, and I should still be okay singing happy songs in the Sunday worship time (I remember one time in particular: a young couple in our church had just been involved in a really serious car accident. He’d been killed and she’d been left paralysed from the neck down. And a couple of Sundays later, the church leader started up “I am H-A-P-P-Y” and was actually less than chuffed that people weren’t joining in. They did things differently in the eighties).
But actually, the rest of the time I’m supposed to be happy. Because I’ve got Jesus! If I’m feeling sad, then I’ve lost sight of Jesus. And – more pernicious than that – I’ve lost contact with Jesus. Because he’s only to be found in the happy places.

But what if that’s not true? What if, when it says in Ecclesiastes, “There is a time to mourn,” it means just that. That there are times in my life when I should be mourning, where that is the place I will find Jesus because that is where he is. In the mourning. Not in the rejoicing.

I think of mourning, grieving, being unhappy as malfunctioning.
And one day there will come a time when every tear will be dried. But I’m not living there yet.

Choosing to invite you into joy: I think it might be deeply linked to being okay with inviting you into sorrow, Jesus, to knowing that you want to be there with me.

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