Sadness




    Sadness

If you've seen the movie Inside Out, then you're well familiar with the character of sadness. She just doesn't fit in with the other emotions. Joy spends most of her time either trying to make Sadness happy, or get her out of the way so the other emotions can take care of Riley.

We never really know how to handle sadness in others, do we? Raw emotion makes a lot of us uncomfortable. We're afraid of making it worse, so we never really say anything at all. Why are we so afraid of being real with each other, especially when the Bible is filled with examples of real emotion?

I've been in the psalms for a while, just marveling at the real, raw way in which David reached out to God. 


"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
2 
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest." (Psalm 22:1-2)


I wish it wasn't so seemingly taboo in Christian circles to experience a period of sadness. Sure, all things work together for those who love the Lord and who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28), but sometimes what our brothers and sisters in Christ need is simply a friendly presence in their lives.In Romans 12, as Paul is in the middle of expounding upon the qualities Christians should possess as they interact with one another, he says something that's often quoted, but lived out less often. "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep." (Romans 12:15) It doesn't say, "Ask your neighbor what unconfessed sin they hold in their life." It doesn't say "Give them an out of context bible-verse about the babylonian captivity." (Jeremiah 29:11, "I know all the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.") It just says to weep with those weep. 

As I've said before, the past few months have been rough. There's been a lot to process, and I felt like I wasn't fully present as I tried to process everything, and I was in a constant state of exhaustion. I don't cry all that often, but one night, I sat outside my apartment at school and just cried. All of my pent up emotions had been looking for a way out, and they finally had one. After a few minutes, I heard the door open behind me, and my heart sank. Who would I have to plaster on a happy face for? Who would I have to smile politely to before I could return to my catharsis?
But there were no plastered on happy faces needed. My sweet roommate opened the door and sat beside me, and wrapped me up in a big bear hug and let me cry. 
This is the Body of Christ
This is weeping with those who weep.
This is what all those one another's mean. 
Praise God for the ability to cry out to Him in a very real way, and for friends who come alongside and weep when you do.


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