Sad?

Isn't it strange where devotions can take you sometimes? Or maybe it's just me. Reading this morning including Ecclesiastes 7 where I read:

"Sorrow is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart."

Hmmm. Being a person who laughs A LOT (too much I'm sure some people say) this struck me as an odd thing to read in the Bible. Surely God wants me to be happy? And then I read this:

• "There is a crazy verse in Ecclesiastes 7:3 that sounds so opposite to what we seem to live for. It says that "sorrow is better than laughter because a sad face is good for the heart." Wow, that is depressing. Why in the world would the wisest man in the world right something so foreign to our ears? Maybe because it was a wise saying. The writer comes to the conclusion that some meaningful contemplation of life will benefit you a lot more than a continual casual and carefree attitude. Funerals are better for us than parties."

Scott Meador, Lead Pastor, Journey Church, Denton Texas

After more contemplation I do agree, there is a need for seriousness and even sadness in all of our lives. We do tend, as much of the book of Ecclesiastes seems to say, spend much to much of our time occupying ourselves with things that are fleeting instead of focusing on the eternal.

But where is the balance? I know that it is okay to be happy, to laugh even. That is the way I prefer to be but I must work on avoiding sadness. I know that it is one of the ways that God can help me to grow. For instance, I avoid thinking of my mother. She has Alzheimers and lives in an nursing home in Detroit. She doesn't seem to really know me or my children when we go to see her. We remind her and she at least acts to remember. I don't see her very often because its just too sad. (I have many other reasons, some of which might be more than me rationalizing.) Am I missing out on a growth experiencing? Or am I just being practical? I don't know.

While "googling" this verse I came upon another blog who's author wrote this:

• I like to listen to Science Friday on NPR. Recently, they did a program on depression. During the interview, the two experts discussed the explosion of cases of depression diagnosed today and the reality that antidepressants are the most common drug prescribed, with one person out of every 15 in America taking them. And those numbers are growing.Those experts noted disconcertingly that pharmaceutical company marketing departments helped manufacture much of the need, dramatically reducing the threshold for what is considered depression. Doctors bought into that marketing. Now, we have created an atmosphere of “Sad? Well, there’s a pill for that.”

- Dan Edelen

This all leads me to the question, How do we, for ourselves, and as parents learn to live with sadness, grow from sadness and not just try to distract ourselves away from it? When do we as parents see our children sad and allow them to learn from it rather than trying to cheer them up? How do we help a child "learn from sadness".

Something to think about. Next month our virtue is patience which I know can create sadness. Maybe we can talk about this some more?