I was talking with a friend the other night about life. About how life is really not a walk in the park. I have recently grown frustrated when I look around me and wonder if maybe there's something I just don't get. People smiling all the time, laughing, being bubbly and extroverted. Perhaps it's personality-driven, or am I simply more inclined to keep it real? Maybe for some people this laughter and happiness is some sort of defense mechanism to use in order to hide their true feelings. How can people really be that happy all of the time?
Folks, life sucks. I'm gonna say it. Why have we gotten to such a point that we must always project this facade that we are always happy? Always put together? Always have the right answers? Always trust? Always hope? Always love? I could go on. Now I'm not saying that you dump all of your sorrows on that poor un-suspecting Publix cashier when she asks you how you are doing. But sometimes when I run into people at church and have a conversation, I act happy on the outside while inside I feel just the opposite: discouraged, hurting, depressed, listless.
"Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." -Psalm 42:5
"My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling ahve beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, 'Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest-- I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.' " -Psalm 55:4-8
"Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God." -Psalm 69:1-3
"But I cry to You for help, O LORD; in teh morning my prayer comes before you. Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend." -Psalm 88:13-18
Check out those Psalms, and check out more in the Book. Those are the words of a man who was honest. We could learn something from him. There have been times in my life where I could probably have written similar entries in my own journals.
So I'm not happy all the time. I said it. Life is hard. But God is good.
1 comment:
Thanks for your thoughts, Nat. I think that one of the things that inspires this false cheerfulness is the misbegotten notion of happiness and joy being the same thing.
I think another issue with this is that people don't feel welcome to express their struggles and their feelings. If all someone expects from you is an "I'm fine. How are you?" that is exactly what we are going to give them.
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