Happy are the Sad
If you watch TV at all, you have seen the ad for Cymbalta (the depression medication--see http://www.bierkergaard.blogspot.com/ "Happy are the Sad" title for Cymbalta info). The commercial shows people looking really down, laying around, with sorrow writ large all over their faces. There is even one scene where a person and the dog both are really down. Maybe there will be a canine Cymbalta brought to market. I would not be surprised.
Friends of ours are getting a divorce and I saw their dog out in the yard the other day and the dog did look down in the dumps. I think dogs have emotional intelligence, they can sense the prevailing mood in a household and be affected by it--and express it. Happy dogs are like mood rings with fur. Happy dog, happy household. Sad dogs, sad household. Bad dogs, bad household. I just don't see dogs as dogs being able to manufacture moods. They are conduits of feelings instead.
In Matthew 5:4, Jesus basically says "Happy are the Sad." Talk about paradox. There must be something good about being down. The world would say that something is wrong with us because we are sad. Jesus, I believe, teaches that if one is sad, something could also be right. In light of the affairs of the world, sadness is an authentic and true response. I fear people that appear too up; it seems simplistic and even selfish.
Yet, Christians are also commanded to be happy. Not in a superficial manner but in the way that Joseph said, "What was meant for evil has turned out to be good because God was in it." We don't see the end from the beginning...what we perceive as good may turn out to ruin us (like winning the lottery). What we perceive as bad, may be a blessing (like losing a job). God sometimes needs to take us low to raise us up. Kind of like a jailbreak when imprisoned. We need to dig under the wall of oppression and enslavement in order to win our freedom. If we try to go over the top and use worldly means, we become target practice for the guards.
There is a point in depression where a person is in a rut that can't be escaped from. Medication may be appropriate to get that individual unstuck. Yet, I fear that if we don't point people with depression to Jesus, the cure that they find may just mask unhealed hurts and unresolved issues.
People with great hurt need great healing. And, an awareness of great hurt, can lead broken souls to the cross. Therapeutically, one way to get depressed people making progress is to have them focus on something else besides themselves. Looking at Jesus, upon the cross, certainly has to be the prime manner of seeing our pain in context. As bad as our life situation is, nobody can say that taking the sins of the world is less than the burdens than we carry.
Jesus is the God with wounds. In his wounds, we find healing.
Friends of ours are getting a divorce and I saw their dog out in the yard the other day and the dog did look down in the dumps. I think dogs have emotional intelligence, they can sense the prevailing mood in a household and be affected by it--and express it. Happy dogs are like mood rings with fur. Happy dog, happy household. Sad dogs, sad household. Bad dogs, bad household. I just don't see dogs as dogs being able to manufacture moods. They are conduits of feelings instead.
In Matthew 5:4, Jesus basically says "Happy are the Sad." Talk about paradox. There must be something good about being down. The world would say that something is wrong with us because we are sad. Jesus, I believe, teaches that if one is sad, something could also be right. In light of the affairs of the world, sadness is an authentic and true response. I fear people that appear too up; it seems simplistic and even selfish.
Yet, Christians are also commanded to be happy. Not in a superficial manner but in the way that Joseph said, "What was meant for evil has turned out to be good because God was in it." We don't see the end from the beginning...what we perceive as good may turn out to ruin us (like winning the lottery). What we perceive as bad, may be a blessing (like losing a job). God sometimes needs to take us low to raise us up. Kind of like a jailbreak when imprisoned. We need to dig under the wall of oppression and enslavement in order to win our freedom. If we try to go over the top and use worldly means, we become target practice for the guards.
There is a point in depression where a person is in a rut that can't be escaped from. Medication may be appropriate to get that individual unstuck. Yet, I fear that if we don't point people with depression to Jesus, the cure that they find may just mask unhealed hurts and unresolved issues.
People with great hurt need great healing. And, an awareness of great hurt, can lead broken souls to the cross. Therapeutically, one way to get depressed people making progress is to have them focus on something else besides themselves. Looking at Jesus, upon the cross, certainly has to be the prime manner of seeing our pain in context. As bad as our life situation is, nobody can say that taking the sins of the world is less than the burdens than we carry.
Jesus is the God with wounds. In his wounds, we find healing.
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