By Chris WittsMonday 13 Nov 2023Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
Transcript:
Have you ever noticed that our media doesn’t like to promote sadness? It almost seems like our culture says, ‘Get rid of all sadness and grief, live for today and be happy.’ Well, that’s funny, because most of life is actually spent avoiding pain. And so we don’t like that coming into our lives because life’s supposed to be all about happiness and fun.
Feeling Sad Today? Part 1 — Morning Devotions
And even when we get bad, bad news on TV, do you ever notice that the news presenters like to conclude their stories, their segments with a funny story or something that’s designed to make us smile? So I think the motto for today is something like this. Blessed are those who laugh their way through life.
Now some of us will do almost anything to stifle our sadness and to turn away from our tears because we live in this culture that’s made the pursuit of happiness, its chief goal in life. I mean, we’re pleasure mad. We avoid the problems. We run from difficulties. We don’t like troubles.
We don’t want to deal with things that make us unhappy. Life’s hard enough, we say, and our society says, “Well, forget your troubles, turn your backs on them, do anything you can not to face them because sorrow is bad and happy is good.” There are bad things happening any time without you going looking for them, so don’t mourn. But that’s not really the way life is when we look at it, because I was looking in the Bible of Proverbs 14:13 and this is what it says. Remarkable verse. “Sorrow may hide behind laughter and happiness may end in sorrow.”
Sorrow may hide behind laughter and happiness may end in so now. How true that is. For some who wear a mask, who never reveal their true feelings and even their laughter is not really laughter. It’s only a pretence. So what a challenge we have here and these thoughts about being real and being authentic. I think God wants us, you know, to pursue that line of being authentic. Because Ecclesiastes 7:6 from the Old Testament, says “meaningless is the laughter of fools. It sounds like thorns crackling in a fire.”
Have you ever heard the poem ‘I walked a mile with pleasure. She chatted all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow and not a word, said she. But, oh, the things I learned when sorrow walked with me.’
Now, in one of the most profound and unusual verses in the Bible, Jesus says this. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” And that’s from Matthew 5:4.
It’s true that God is more concerned with our character than he is with our temporary conditions
It’s the deep sorrow that causes the soul to ache and the heart to break. So Jesus is not talking here about those who complain and moan, but those who are gripped with grief. Psalm 34:18, actually has another great verse that says “the Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Now, I think as we think about this, this morning, it’s interesting to try and acknowledge the losses in life. Now this area might be the easiest in the sense that we’ve all experienced pain. But the Bible says, don’t be surprised at the painful trials you’re suffering as though something strange is happening to you. You might have gone through some health issues that make you afraid about the future.
Perhaps you’ve experienced some other problem, but I think it’s important to acknowledge what’s going on.
Maybe we read in the Bible about people who went through terrible times. You can relate to how David felt when his son, Absalom died. The king was shaken, we read. He went up to his room, and he wept. When Abraham’s wife, Sarah, died. We read in Genesis 23 he came to mourn and to weep for her. And remember also that Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died.
So God collects every tear that we shed. That’s what it says in Psalm 56:8. So God is close to those who feel the sense of loss and sorrow.
Let’s Pray
Well, Heavenly Father, we want to not rely on our strength, but on your strength. Because our vision of you can get clouded, particularly Lord in this time of sadness. So just be with us now, I pray for Jesus’ sake, Amen.