Christians have such a weird relationships with hard emotions.
I think it is because we often are led to believe
that expressing sadness, disappointment, anger, or fear
means that we don't trust God,
we don't believe God is good;
that we are somehow failing God
by being less than perfectly cheerful
every day of our lives.
I think this is wrong.
Read the Psalms if you doubt me.
David, a man after God's own heart,
expresses one of the widest ranges of human emotions in history,
all within God's good care.
We should do nothing less.
In Barbara Brown Taylor's book on darkness
I read this today:
" ... sadness does not sink a person;
it is the energy a person spends trying to avoid sadness
that does that."
If you are sad, be sad.
If somone you know is sad, let them be sad.
It is ok.
Jesus wept.
And he is as close to God as you can get.
I agree. I am learning that bracing against is much harder and less effective than embracing reality.
Isn't it so counterintuitively true? There is something peaceful about simply embracing how we feel and letting it just be true for a time. We live in a culture of toxic positivity and it is wearisome.