20 Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day,or like vinegar poured on soda,
I could easily be described as an optimistic person and intern could easily say that it is the best way to live. I have always thought that is the way to live but recently I have been seeing that maybe the optimistic side is not always the right way to go. I have been challenged by my wife (who is great at making me see what I could not see in my own) that trying to always be happy or find the positive might steal from a part of who God made us to be, human. What I mean is that our grieving, our hurt, our emotional pain are a part of who we are, and it molds us and makes us appreciate the good. But those things are so cliché. I am starting to see that there is so much more. The bible says that the “truth will set us free” and sometimes the truth and/or life just hurts. Even if the truth is right and in the long run good it can still hurt. I have found that when I try to find the good and ignore the negative or hurt this causes me to miss the truth and miss out living a life that encounters God in everything and allows our spirits to go through things God made us to.
The other thing I have been learning comes for directly from the verse mentioned above. I have realized that by trying to be optimistic when others are hurting (Singing a song to a heavy heart) I am making things worse and taking from them something they need to experience (takes away a garment on a cold day). This causes me to ask myself even deeper questions I can’t get into here: “Why do I have to “sing the songs to the heavy heart”? Why am I so uncomfortable with the pain of life? I am now trying to explore that area in my life but for now I look back and have to say that I was wrong so many times in my life when I was singing the songs instead of letting the heart be heavy. Although we can not live in sadness I am learning I must experience it. But in the end another Proverb rings out…
Prov 15:15
15 All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.
Along with this word from God…
Jer 31:13-14
I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
In the end I want to let my God turn my morning (heavy heart) into gladness (singing the song), but still need to experience the heavy heart for a time as Ecclesiastes says…
Eccl 3:1-4
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: …
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance
The point is to let the heavey heart runs its God given course but then surrender that heavy heart to Father God and let him bring chear and experience that continual feast and in the long run, I love dancing!
