It's easy to fall into the trap, the pit of despair that too often accompanies this thing we like to call life. The bitterness and struggle to just get along seems to be the rule of the day and the incessant drone of day to day walking. A simplistic answer would be to "Get Religion", but even then the ever-presence of the blues is obvious. Face it, the prophets were some real downers and the likes of Jeremiah even wished he'd never left his mother's womb. 
Never left his mother's womb. If it were only that easy. Others say look for that happy place, Nirvana, and spend your life looking or waiting. Or, live a bunch of lives until you get it right. Tao leads us to nothing, maybe the only real human answer but, none the less, a pretty sad answer.
I don't believe God created us to be constantly happy. Eternally, yes, but not just now. He created us to live, to love, to be happy, to be sad, to be all things that are human and, yes, God-like. Here's where we lose it though, at least for me.
It's this thing called death. Not just the physical death, but the emotional and spiritual deaths as well. It's that thing which separated us from what God intended for us. Physical death is the obvious one and, somehow, the easiest to understand even if it hurts like hell. Beginning/end. Keep walking. Someday we all do it.
But emotional and spiritual death are a different story, as they aren't so obvious.
Hate and prejudice, selfishness, disregard and disrespect, gluttony (not just food and drink) are all things that make for emotional death. It separates us from each other but, since we continue to physically live, we don't really recognize the death.
Spiritual death, that death that separates us from God, can come as a result of emotional death, but not always. Jeremiah was on that verge, as was Job, as was (yes) Jesus, when they all asked that same question "Why have you forsaken me?" But they didn't fall into it. They saw the separation and lamented it, as do we all sometimes. I guess that puts us in pretty good company.
But that's where the blues come in.
Willie Brown, friend of blues icon Robert Johnson, is credited with defining the blues this way, "Blues ain't nuttin' but a good man feelin' bad."
I guess where I'm going with this is that emotional and spiritual death don't have to be the end. Only physical death brings it all home. There is resurrection from emotional and spiritual death while we live, if we choose it and, I believe anyways, that the final resurrection comes as a result of those two getting set right now.
2 comments:
Just picked up the local alternative freebie newspaper. Lead story is about a Seattle band called "Thee Emergency" coming to Spokane. Lead sentence: "Thee Emergency is an unquantifiable voltage of electricity that can shock anyone into feeling good."
Maybe the reporter is just jiving. But if I take his words seriously I think he is saying people go to hear bands because they don't feel good and wish they did.
Just verification of the truth you speak of oh soothsayer truthsayer.
I know I was born to flip my legs in the air with joy like Snoopy. But instead here's another day to get through by grit and determination. So I pick up the Bible and find Jesus saying
"God bless you who weep now, for the time will come when you will laugh with joy." Next he says "What sorrows await you who laugh carelessly, for your laughing will turn to mourning and sorrow."
It's almost as if he is saying weeping brings laughter which brings sorrow which brings laughter which brings sorrow which brings laughter which brings sorrow and on and on forever.
Good post, Leo! It's cold, rainy, windy and just plain dreary here today, so your words fit right in with the weather.
For me, I know from experience that God doesn't leave me alone in the down times for too long without a hint of hope...(Sometimes I need help getting my eyes open to see the hints thoug, so thanks to those who pray for me whether I know it or not!) They (the hints)can be something silly to make me laugh; two young squirrels that live in the tree outside my window chasing each other's tails. Or something so beautiful my heart can't help but be resuscitated, like migrating geese on an autumn evening honking their way south, or the smell of fir trees. Once a toddler literally fell into my arms when a car door opened suddenly; she looked into my eyes and announced "I wuv you!" and ran off, leaving me dumbfounded with such an unexpected message of grace. I try to remember such times when I can barely drag myself through the bleak times. I have a treasure box with scraps of such hints-of-joy I've written down - it's proof for me that light exists, when it's hard to believe.
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