From the Grave of Disappointment

Have you ever wondered why joy is so hard… so temporary…

Why?

For such a simple thing why is it so unnatural… evasive.

 

Stop and think for a bit… try to remember…

The joy of Saturday morning cartoons… rugged up in a blanket, the silence that embraces the house at 6am most weekend mornings… frooty loops… t.v on just loud enough that you can hear it without awakening the parents…

Or it could be the excitement of Christmas mornings. Lying in bed, trying to sleep… anticipation at what presents the morning may bring… For me I still remember getting up, crack of dawn, waking up my sister and then (against my mother's wishes) sorting out the presents into piles to see who got more… this all in spite of the fact that we were not to open a single one till AFTER church…

 

It could be the Easter egg hunt… the last day of school before a 3 month summer break… waiting in the transit lounge before your first ever aeroplane flight…

 

Remember how it used to be so simple… so full of joy…Nostalgia is a powerful tool to open the door of revelation.

 

Somewhere along the line things change… life gets more complicated… with work, study, bills, taxes and responsibility it's not all that surprising that life seems to be sapped of…. well life! 

Yet still the desire remains… to once again experience the heights of joy, happiness, peace, hope, meaning….

 

So for a while we try to revisit and recreate… we initially look back at the things that once worked. We quickly strike Saturday morning cartoons at 6am off the list (nothing beats a sleep-in). Christmas isn’t quite as fun when you are expected to buy more presents then you receive. And Easter – well with weight concerns and the need to maintain those abs it is easy to see why this loses its gloss.

 

Unfortunately the desire for the feeling those situations created doesn’t weaken… in fact if anything it only gets stronger… so the activities take on an adult rating… Friday night drinks… religion… career… politics… money… sex… wine (although a glass of red will still make the hardest of days that little more palatable)… sport… and the list goes on.. and on… and on... 

We live for the moment only to find that the feeling it creates passes as quickly as the moment itself…

 

So as a last through of a dice we make a sudden shift. We move from trying to recreate the past… we move beyond the moment… and we pin hope to something attainable in the future…

 “If only I reach ‘[fill in the blank]’ then I will be happy…”

In truth however, if you do end up reaching that goal, I would almost guarantee that the only lasting feeling you will have is dissatisfaction…

 

Have you ever wondered why joy is so hard… so temporary…

 

This is my story. I will be honest. I speak only from what I know. For this is a path similar to what I have walked… and yet somehow I think I am not alone…

 

Let me go biblical… I will be brief…

There is a book in the Bible by the title of Ecclesiastes – “Everything is meaningless”… you may have heard about it… BUT to truly put it in perspective, understand that these pages were penned by the same author as Song of Solomon. Take the time to read them side by side…

Song of Solomon – this is a book often banned through different periods of church history. It is the first place you should go to get an understanding of what God thinks about sex. It is full of passion. Full of life. Written by a young man… impulsive… full of hope… powered by the joy of discovery… bearing no scars and no hurts… 

Ecclesiastes – the overwhelming undercurrent seems to be one of mass disappointment… every sentence oozes the bitterness of man who has had every experience yet never found what matters… over 1000 women in his harem… incalculable wealth… known not only throughout the world of his time but remembered even to this day… yet joyless…

 

How can a man who has had it all be so unhappy?  

 

I want to save you the pain and draw some very affirmative conclusions. I come from a generation who has it all. No shortage of opportunity. Ease of access to wealth, women and any other form of entertainment to dull any undercurrent of pain… at least for a while… for there is one thing that is in distinct lack… actually several… genuine peace, joy and hope… how rare it is to find someone truly happy… truly content…

 

For such simple things why are they so unnatural… so evasive. Why is it that they seem to be things which we do not possess… and never can possess independently…

 

As a suggestion - 

• Don’t try to look within… trying to become ‘one with the environment’… ‘the vibe’… sitting cross legged in the top of a tree mumbling incantations… it won’t ever work… for two reasons – we are clueless to what we are looking for… and even more simply… know matter how often you look for keys under the bed in the morning – you will never find something your wife has already moved to the kitchen…  

 

• Don’t try saturating the senses either… the embracing of every experience… because every new, ultimate experience will inevitably become… plain…

 

For this is the harsh reality… As long as we are looking for peace/hope/joy/love ‘situationally’ instead of sacrificially it will never be found.

 

What does this mean?

Quite simply this:

A new relationship, the ultimate career, a four week holiday, sex, promotion, praise from peers, the newest pair of jeans, the house by the beach… all… temporary… and therefore by the very definition meaningless… 

WHY? 

For we as humans are meant for so much more… and from the pit of disappointment there is a single hope that arises… we ask the question ‘why?’ and begin to think that life was should be so much more…

On this point is hinged an opportunity to radically change a life… Unfortunately it is an opportunity that many, in fact most, will never make… Because to understand true joy… to have the fullness of hope… first a death must occur…

 

Joy will only ever be found in sacrifice… and I will explain why…

 

Is it possible that in all searching… in looking for that one meaningful and lasting experience… that all we encounter is a finger print… evidence of something greater…The problem is that we are taught to look to those situations instead of looking for the actual Embodiment who is leaving the mark.

 

“God is love”, one of the simplest passages of the Bible… yet so rich in meaning…Imagine if love, contrary to all modern thought, is not found in feeling or situation… but in a Person… a defining characteristic… similar to calling someone tall or short… such that you don’t just say they have the traits of being tall or short… but are the actual definition of it… 

Now imagine if the same is true of hope/joy/peace… that they aren’t feelings at all… but rather they a defined by a Person who IS Joy… who IS Hope… who IS Peace…

 If this was true is it possible that all that we long for isn’t “a place”… it isn’t a “point in time”… it isn’t “a situation”… but it is an actual Being…

 

Could it be that what we long for is what we were created for – unbroken relationship with our Maker.

 

And this is the point of sacrifice… because without it we never know this relationship… we have to look to the cross…All disappointment will lead to the cross and there we will be faced with the hardest choice... one so few will make because before receiving the greatest freedom... we have to first experience the pain…

At the foot of the cross we will be called to once and for all surrender… accept that “we can’t”… take off our crown… step off our throne… and actually declare Someone else as King… death must be involved… and it is death of the hardest kind… for it is death to independent self… the root of all sin and all brokenness… the desire to be God… the belief we are number one…

 

Solomon’s conclusions last a line… "Revere God and keep His commands, for this is the whole of man"… thankfully the Bible extends much further… for there is true hope… and it can be found… we just need to understand how.

 

For the life of Freedom begins at the cross… REDEMPTION… and until Christ calls us home this is where we will be called to continually return… to lay down a little bit more of self… SANCTIFICATION… and through it all there is one thing that will sustain…

Hope eternal… love unending and lasting peace… for we will walk… hand in hand with its source… God the Father… God the Son and God the Holy Spirit… this truly is the whole of man… our original purpose… unbroken relationship…