Part of the message of God's Kingdom is learning to lament. We actually enlarge our soul through grieving and loss. I have been reading I and II Samuel. When King Saul and his son Jonathan, David's best friend, were killed in battle, David wrote a lament. He even ordered that the men of Judah be taught this lament…
Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen! Tell is not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad,t lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice. … How the mighty have fallen in battle! Jonathan lies slain on your heights. II Samuel 1:17-20, 24-25
Writer Eugene Peterson says, "Learn to lament. We're mortals,after all. We and everyone around are scheduled for death. Get used to it. Take up your cross. It prepares us and those around us for resurrection."
This is good. Very important. From what I see in today's culture, in this post-post modern era (yes I meant post-post) is a fear of lamenting. Our society tends to hide from anything difficult to see or experience. "Stay away from it if it doesn't make you feel good." In other words, do what makes you feel good…don't do what makes you sad or feels bad. This message seems to be prevalent in a post-post modern society. We are creatures of evolution and adaption… a post-post modernist might say "it only makes sense to shy away from things that don't make you happy." It is as if lamenting, grieving and suffering are negative qualities of the human race that we need to breed out of the genetic pool. This all looks great on paper until you realize that Jesus actually suffered a great deal. I've heard people say, "well, didn't Jesus die to make you happy?" I can answer that with a resounding, "no!" In the Gospel according to candy land and lollipops maybe, but the Jesus I follow provides so much more than temporary relief and happiness.
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