IT'S ALL GOOD, EVEN WHEN IT'S NOT

"Singing light songs to the heavyhearted is like pouring salt in their wounds"

(Proverbs 25:20 - The Message)

As much as I'm typically all about the positive, and about encouraging people to always believe for the best and to see the glass half-full, sometimes I think it's good to let people know that it's also OK to feel the negative and to embrace the dark side along with the Light...

"To everything there is a season...a time to laugh and a time to cry"...

Sometimes tears are appropriate...

Jesus apparently knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, but still burst into tears when He saw the tomb of His beloved friend...

It's not a contradiction of faith or double-mindedness to feel a little bit of everything...feeling sad about things that happen in your life or in the world doesn't mean that you're not grateful for the good things...

Paul told the people of the Roman church to "rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep"...in other words, it's not always appropriate to try to cheer someone up when they're going through something...sometimes it's the right thing to just cry with them, or to even just be sad with them, and not make them feel guilty about their emotions, and just trust that they'll be OK in time...

I'm not talking about the perpetually negative people who don't try to get better and just drain you and suck all the joy out of everything all the time...there's actually little you can do for those types...they are what they are...

But you can love your life, and still feel a sense of deep loss over some things...there most definitely is "a time to mourn"...it doesn't mean that you're living in regret or living in the past or are ungrateful...

This may sound our of character for me to be talking like this, but this is where the energy is for me today, so I'm just writing it as I feel it...

I know in my own case, if I'm feeling down about something, rare as that may be, it doesn't help at all for someone to remind me of how good I have it, or to tell me about someone who has it worse...that just makes me feel crummier...

I learned some time ago that Jesus created a pattern in setting the example of predicting His own death and His own resurrection..."I will be in the heart of the earth for three days, and then I will rise again"...I have learned in my own life that there are seasons when I feel that I am in the heart of the earth, but I also know that I will rise again...I have learned to embrace the death and still prophecy the resurrection...

If you're happy and you know it, that's awesome...I'm all about the happy...love the happy...but I don't judge others who aren't there yet, or try to make them feel better about anything, necessarily...I just try to love and understand them where they are, and believe that the blues will run their course...

I might even buy them a drink (if they don't have a substance abuse problem)

"Use wine and beer only as sedatives, to kill the pain and dull the ache Of the terminally ill, for whom life is a living death."
Proverbs 31:7 - The Message)

Whatever you're feeling from the dark side today, I speak strength to you to just feel it and process it and get through it and get past it...

"Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning..."

And then when you're ready for it, I will give you this:

"Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!"

(Isaiah 60:1 - AMP)"