Whenever I skip a week (or two...) of publishing my newsletter, it's usually because I think I don't have anything to say. And that can be a good thing. Even a fool is considered wise if they stay silent, I believe the proverb goes.
Other times, I do have a thought rattling in my head, but I just don't think it's developed enough to warrant a whole email about it. Well, today I'm going to go for it! Here is a brief thought I had this week:
Don't celebrate instead of mourning. Find the celebration by going through the mourning.
Logically, it seems like celebrating and mourning are opposites. But what if they are somehow connected? What if we don't have to see the glass as half full OR half empty? What if we don't have to be defined as an optimist OR a pessimist? What if there is room for both?
When the Jews returned to Jerusalem from exile, they rebuilt the city walls and gates. Then the priest Ezra read from the Book of the Law, and the people wept. I think they wept because they knew how far they had strayed from God. They were reminded of their brokenness.
But then Ezra and Nehemiah tell the people to stop weeping and celebrate.
Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, "Don't mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God." For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
And Nehemiah continued, "Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!" (Nehemiah 8:9-10, NLT)
Yes, the people were told to stop weeping and to celebrate instead. But here's the thing: Maybe the people could only get to a place of celebration because they had first wept. Maybe the weeping made the drinks sweeter and the foods richer. If the people hadn't wept, Nehemiah could not have told them to stop weeping and celebrate. (And in the next chapter, the people do have a time of mourning as they reflect on their collective history.)
We can't celebrate the grace of God until we have wept over our brokenness.
Maybe happy tears can only flow out of sad tears.
It reminds me of a line from a song in The Addams Family musical (yes, they made a musical of that):
Life is full of contradictions
Every inch a mile
And the moment we start weeping
That's when we should smile
Don't celebrate instead of mourning. Find the celebration by going through the mourning. Because God is close to the brokenhearted.
That's my thought for this week, and I'm still unsure what I think about it!
What do you think?
—
P.S. If you’d like to support my writing, you can buy me a sweet tea to keep me caffeinated and it would be much appreciated.