Monday, 23 June 2008
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Should Christians be happy when God taketh away?
I remember the day when my first dog passed away. I was understandably bummed and was pretty saddened by the whole thing. I remember confiding in a friend of mine about my loss and he said "What He gives, he taketh away." First of all, I can tell he had no idea how to comfort me and blurted whatever he could think of at the top of his head. And to this day I never understood why he bothered to add a "th" at the end of "take" as if it's a direct quote from the Bible. Nevertheless, I admired how he was trying.
Any event, we talked some more and he had an impression that since I was a Christian I should be optimistic. That having the dog in the first place was a gift in itself and that I should be happy. He talked about how I had heaven and something to live for and that I would be reunited with my dog, etc etc etc... In essence, Christians shouldn't be sad.
I was troubled by this because intellectually I understood the point. Christians live for a different purpose - we have an idea of a greater good in this world and that God has a wonderful plan mapped out for all of us. In the end, there's eternal life - heaven, and the promise of completeness upon our passing. But I can't help but to feel that there are moments in life that are just tough and it's ok to be sad.
It's a tough balance in my mind - Christians are typically portrayed as a happy go lucky care free bunch of people. Think the Ned Flanders of the world or all the praise songs we sing even - they're always portrayed to have no worries at all....but I feel this is far from....we too hurt, we too have our share of pains, and we too are flawed like no other...
and in that - what do you guys think....should Christians always try to be happy or is it ok to be sad time to time?
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Comments (26)
It's naturally (chemically) impossible for anyone to ALWAYS be happy.
I don't think it is possible to be always happy.
Yes, we should always remember the eternal goals and what God wants for us but it is not a sin to be sad sometimes. Even Jesus wept
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
I think its okay to be sad.The only place where we can ultimately be happy ALL the time is in heaven and this is because our world is so full of crap and sin. So really, its impossible to be genuinely happy all the time. We are human, we are allowed to feel emotions. We have our share of doubts and trials. However as christians, thats when we turn to Him and lay our life at His feet instead of holding onto it ourselves and trying to fix it ourselves.
I think that as a Christian we are allowed to be sad - that we are allowed to grieve. I believe Jesus grieved ...
I think that the key concept being confused is that joy and happiness are the same thing. The Bible clearly states that we should have joy in Christ, regardless of our situation (James 1:2-4). That's b/c as you said, we know that we live for Christ and that Christ has redeemed us from our wretched state. However, happiness is only a feeling, an emotion we have. There will definitely be times where we will be sad, angry,...etc. and that's normal. But if we base our relationship on Christ on how we feel from day to day, we're doomed to fail.
Happy isn't how I would describe the feeling when God takes away....peaceful, hopeful, and submissive would be better words for me to use to describe those feelings. Sadness often overwhelms us at first, but after some time our reasoning sets in and we can use our knowledge of the Bible and God's goodness to accept His will--which we know is perfect.
Please read my post regarding what God gives and takes away which was written following the death of my 7 month old son. It's definitely a process.
http://weblog.xanga.com/a_defiantbeauty_2/648403819/praise-you-in-the-storm.html
God's love for us is not a love that exempts us from trials, but rather a love that ALWAYS sees us thru trials.
We have emotions for a reason, we need to use them! I think every single person should experience every single emotion at least once, or I feel they are deprived of the wonders of life. Without sadness, everything is "good" but then if everything is good, nothing is spectacular; it's all just normal. There are no good things in the world if there are no "bad" things... Duality, duality, duality...
...is that a kangaroo getting owned by a chicken?
Hey! I have some Christian songs in my audioblog. If you like Christian music, come to it sometime. =)
http://audio.xanga.com/the_skirt_girl/
When God taketh away, it is always for our good, and for His Glory....
And, yes, Grief is a healthy part of that taking away. Did not Job grieve deeply?
happy... no... joyful... yes....
i still have joy when a girl i'm convinced of is to be my wife in the future... convinced... i clearly have the Word as my peace to back me up...
but we aren't together now because she doesn't have a peace... doesn't mean it doesn't hurt to know that essentially she isn't on the same committment level as I was willing to be... but u know... i love her enough to serve her in this break up... and will continue to love her by giving her space...
breaking up w/ her wasn't happy at all... i still have wounds fresh from the breakup which happened recently...
but luckily... God is slowly but surely healing me with the notion that my joy isn't circumstancial... based on the events of this present world... but that joy comes only from Christ and His present reality... and that He if we find our satisfaction in Him, our duty, purpose, and obligation in life is to seek our joy in Jesus Christ...
but am I happy... heck no... though this reply seems flippant... i am hurting and it does suck and no i'm not happy at all...
but Jesus is my joy.... because He transcends earthly happiness and I have rest in that....
and God is indeed Sovereign... u HAVE to trust Him... even if the world caves in... or He takes things away...
Matt Redman once said that a lament is actually a praise song in a minor key...
I think it is ok to be sad but not for a long period of time. We just have to remember that God can turn the bad things into good things if we just let him. I know he has done that for me lately and I love him for that. You can get so sad and worried that can make you sick and just not sleep and anything else you can think of. I was there but then God bought this amazing person into my life and made me happy again and made me think maybe God did this so I could see what I was doing wrong or needed to get my attention somehow. I learned from this bad thing of mine to care and learn about people and just by doing that I got to know some awesome people. God has also helped me see how much I am really like this person that died and that I couldn't see before. I hope this all make some sense to you. It is really hard to explain sometimes. The points are that God can turn bad things into something good if we let him and that we might learn something good from a death or whatever bad happened.
Plus God can work through you more when you are sad because people around you can see the strenght and courage that God gave you to go on about your work and He seems to teach you a lot more during sad times to because you are searching for answers to questions like why do this happen or any others.
Ecclesiastes!!! 3:1,2,4
"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..."
sometimes a good cry does us good, and sometimes tears are healing, but then there's also a time to move on... thinking about it, pretty much everything is set up so we can become closer to God: when we receive things, we can thank Him for blessing us; when we lose things, it's a chance for us to come closer to and rely on Him and to remind us that He is always there and we can do without all this 'stuff'.you can also learn something from just about everything too...
I love the vid, btw- many lolz
I know that God always has a reason for taking something away but it still hurts
Read through the Psalms. David laid it all out.
Job 1:21 (AMP) - And said, Naked (without possessions) came I [into this world] from my
mother's womb, and naked (without possessions) shall I depart. The Lord
gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed (praised and magnified in
worship) be the name of the Lord!
Job 13:15a (KJV) - Though he slay me, yet will I trust(hope) in him:
I definitely believe that we will have seasons of sadness, pain, happiness, etc. It's the journey of life. It's up and down. Yet, we have this hope: God never changes. He was; He is; He will be.
This is what I cling to when life gets challenging...in those times where I feel like I am standing still and God isn't speaking.
it's fine to be sad! Especially when you lose someone/something you care about. Sure you know you'll see them again, but it won't be for a long tim so you have reason to be sad. And sometimes life is just hard. You have hard decisions to make and sometimes things don't go the way you plan. It takes A LOT of faith not to be sad at all during those times.
It's okay for Christians to be sad. The only place we will truly be happy is when we go to heaven and meet our Lord and Savior.
I think God is more interested in Authenticity.
It is when we try to be something we are not, that I think he begins to make eyebrows at us.
So if sad, be sad- but trust in God.
If happy, be happy- and trust in God.
x
The comments posted here are great! You guys have really captured the idea that emotions are good, normal, and (may I say it...) godly! If Jesus, who knew no sin, could be angry (in the temple courts), sad (for the death of his friend Lazarus, and nervous (in the Garden of Gethsemane), then we have no reason to be ashamed of our emotions. (Side note: male and female are both made in the image of God, so the fact that women are usually more emotional is simply a reflection of God.)
You (plural, everyone) have also fleshed out the happiness/joy/grief issue. Since the original post was about the death of a beloved pet, then let me reflect on that. You would be considered crazy if you were happy that your pet died. So no, happiness is not in order.
Grief and pain are part of life on earth, but through it we have hope that God's kingdom is coming. Think: Why do we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"? In heaven, God's kingdom rules. The prince of this world is Satan, and we are praying that God will bring his kingdom here, because this is where we are. And we hurt! We want God's kingdom here!
i can't stop laughing at the video...
i heard this once from a pastor that the translation of "taketh" meant "to receive". God gives, and then He receives.
@NovaCentuari01AE@xanga -
Interesting point.
I agree with others who have commented about this. If we never had negative emotions, we wouldn't need the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter. God obviously knew we would need His comfort constantly, so He sent His Spirit to help us.
Of course it is okay to be happy and to be sad at times... we have been blessed with ALL emotions... As I always tell my friends, Christians are human too, you know! That's why we need Jesus! ;o)
There is only one thing I can say:
"Jesus wept."
God bless you!!
there is a difference between being happy and being joyful.
Happy - enjoying well being or contentment, good fortune
Joy - the emotion evokedby the prospect of posessing what one desires (both def. taken from Websters New Colligiate Dictionary 1981)
I do not think that we are "supposed" to or even try to be happy all the time. Because, as the others have said, we are human and no one is happy all the time. I do think howver that we are to be joyful at all times, looking forward to what God has in store for us, whether it be in the future, or in heaven. As Paul says in James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish its good work in you so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything." Nowhere in the Bible does it ever say that we are to be happy all the time, just joyful.