Walking With Christ

Proverbs 14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief.(ESV)

Genesis 37:34-35 (34)Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. (35)All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.(ESV)

Not all smiles are real, nor are all tears. A smile can hide unimaginable pain. It can also hide a fierce hatred. In the case of Joseph, his brothers knew his fate but still tried to console their father with fake sympathy.

This ties into the masks we wear. As Christians, we are supposed to take off the masks, to be open and vulnerable with each other. We are taught from a young age to create masks and never take them off. We wear masks so much that we often forget what our real face looks like in the mirror. We lose the ability to even be honest with ourselves. Some can bury certain emotions and events so deeply that it’s almost as if they never happened. The comfortable lie is better than the painful truth.

Church is supposed to be a place where we can safely remove the masks. It’s supposed to be a place where a person can be open and honest about their struggles, pain, worries, and fears. Far too often people come through the doors only to feel like they have to meet a certain standard before they will even be allowed to pray.

For every lie there is a truth. For every tear of joy there is a cry of pain. For every up there is a down. For every life there is a death. These moments come and go. This life is shorter than we can know. Whether you are shouting for joy at the peak of the mountain, begging for help or mercy in the deepest part of the valley, or just plain lost; be in the moment. You can’t know what the next moment, the next step, the next day will bring. You can live in the moment knowing that it will pass and that God is with you. God knows all. He sees all. We can’t hide things from Him even if we do manage to hide them from ourselves.

There is almost an art to learning to simply be. Let the chaos of the world swirl all around you while remaining at peace. Knowing that God is with you and that ‘this too shall pass’ can be the cornerstone to that kind of peace. This is why my favorite scripture in the whole bible has long been Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. A close second is Deuteronomy 31:6.