“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4; NRSVue
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Luke 6:21b, 25b; NRSVue
We all have to be careful, and I’m thinking especially of myself, because we can easily try to contradict something which actually in its place is quite true. Even while we too may be making a valid point. We may well be talking past each other, myself addressing something which really has nothing to do with what I think I might be correcting.
So there’s indeed need for people who are depressed, down, in despair, easily emotional, given to weeping to get professional help from a counselor, maybe a psychologist or psychiatrist, and perhaps to get medical help as well. There’s no shame in that. It can be not only the right thing to do, but absolutely necessary. Let there be no doubt about that.
I have gone down that course before, and it did help. But the meds had their side effects, and I thought I would rather be in my old normal state of kind of feeling down much of the time, and sometimes pretty depressed, though never to the point that I couldn’t carry on every day with everything, though that could make challenging times seem harder. I have never been diagnosed as being depressed.
At the same time, I’m wondering if we’re of a disposition nowadays to think that if we’re down, then we’re out. Do we have to feel good much of the time, maybe all the time, that serotonin kicking in? Yes, again you and I down the road might need special help. We must never ever give into despair. If we’re even heading that direction, then we need special help.
At the same time to lament over the world at large, and over our own world with the troubles people face, the intractable difficulties we ourselves face, along with the brokenness all around us in evil, danger and death, that is very much a Biblical response to life. There is nothing wrong with not feeling good at times, and in mourning. Yes, there’s “a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Yes, we do need some good belly laughs.
But by and large I think and feel that it’s not only okay, but good to be down given the brokenness of this world, of our present existence. As we see in the passages, Jesus said such is blessed by God. When we’re down we’re more prone to look up in prayers to God. We can tend to become more dependent on God, and less on ourselves, less even on circumstances. It can be a part of a needed humbling.
May the Lord give us all the wisdom we need. May we see sorrow, lament, and weeping as a gift from God. God’s comfort and peace even sense of joy helping us in all of this. In and through Jesus.