My last post was a personal and therapeutic attempt at expression and self-awareness of the need to process and release the pain I keep bottled up inside. I wasn’t sure if I should post it because I wasn’t looking for sympathy or advice. I just had the urge to write down my thoughts .
In other words, did I really need to share those thoughts publicly or should I have just written it in a journal and moved on?
But the thought was in the back of my mind when I hit the post button that someone out there might benefit from knowing that they aren’t alone in their suffering.
In our culture and especially in Christianity , we often focus on positivity and gratitude, which is great, but when life is hard and painful this can make it hard to heal and cause a person to feel guilty for not being joyful at all times.
Looking at the Bible I think we can find many examples of grief and mourning and expressions of feelings other than joy. God made us this way . I don’t think he wants us to pretend to be fine when terrible things happen.
Deuteronomy 34:8
[8] And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
Psalm 31:9-10[9] Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. [10] For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
It’s okay to have feelings. (Note to self.)
Blue Skies and Green Pastures 
I often waffle back and forth between the two, especially in blogging. I’ll post a few heavy, emotional, lamentations and rants and then realize this is all so negative and dreary, I better do a fluff piece. Some people on the internet call it a “timeline cleanse” and post pictures of puppies or something.
Something I really appreciate about grief and sadness however, is that they are an expression of worship and gratitude. We are only sad about the things we value and the people who matter. We feel the sad things in life because we sense they fall short of a standard, a standard God placed in our hearts. There’s a place of peace, of no more tears, of good health, of fulfilled dreams, and that’s the world we were designed for.
Love that . Thanks 💕
If this life is happy-happy-happy all the time, what’s the hope of heaven all about? And the face that appears happy-happy-happy all the time is plastic-looking to me. I don’t trust those pasted-on smiles.
Paula, I was praying for you when I read that post. And I was getting more frustrated by the minute, because I was trying to send some words of encouragement, or at least let you know I was praying for you, and my phone was being weird and wouldn’t let me sign in, even to my own blog! Anyway, just know that I was praying for you, and I do understand, and in case you didn’t see my post “Behind the Veil,” I wanted to send you a link, because it’s about the next life, which I have been dreaming about lately, and it’s going to be awesome. By the time we’ve been there a few trillion millennia, I’m not sure we’ll even remember this life at all.
Anyway, for what it’s worth …
https://seekingdivineperspective.com/2025/03/01/behind-the-veil/
Thank you ! Makes me “happy “ knowing you care! ☺️will definitely read your post. Today is my husband’s kidney removal (nepherectomy) surgery. 🙏God bless you , sweet friend!
Loved your post but couldn’t comment because technology. 💕
I hope you see this – I couldn’t reply to your answer, so I’m replying to my own comment. Not sure what’s going on with WordPress, but I hope it encourages people to know that it’s very possible that more people love and care about them than they know. 😉 ❤
I try and remind myself sometimes that some major parts of the Bible are people crying out to the Lord (Psalms come to mind especially…though there are plenty of other places). Sometimes, life is just plain hard, and sad, and tough. And it’s better to share and let others know it’s ok to feel sad. We won’t always be joyful. We have to pass through the storms and the valleys in order to come out on the other side. We, however, get to choose whether those storms and valleys draw us closer to God or not. And at the end, we will be with Him forever with no more pain, fear, suffering, or sorrow. But the journey is what matters, what we leave for others to see and grow from. God Bless!