The joys and sorrows of life

Of course I'd rather be happy. Set tears and laughter before me for my choosing, I'd pick laughter each and every time. But such is never the choice is it? Life steers us that-a-way and we pull this-a-way and somewhere in the middle we end up with either of the two, even sometimes both. But if you'd ask me what my problem is on one of the dark days, it wouldn't be tears, nor would it be sorrow. It would be that something in my my life is amiss, and I can't find it again as much as I try or plead or struggle for it.

St. Augustine expressed it thus: For he cannot be free from infelicity who worships Felicity as a goddess, and forsakes God, the giver of Felicity; just as he cannot be free from hunger who licks a painted loaf of bread, and does not buy it from the man who has a real one.” People in his day seems to have got the absurd idea of praising as god Felicity, which in modern tounge translates to Happiness. Strange crowd, them ancients...

Now ask me again how I wish to feel. Ask me if christians are happier, more at peace in and with themselves. If they on average laugh more times than the next person, obviously bound for hell. I'll say - it´s irrelevant. Feelings are but symptoms of life; yes, you can play tricks with them, silence them or magnify them, conjure them out of nothingness with what appears as wisdom of living. People have made fortunes on selling the recipes. But why would you?

The joys and sorrows of christian life are then not a matter of feelings, to feel blessed, good, righteous and /or saved. It's about being saved, not because I felt a certain something, but because Christ has promised it, that knowing God and Jesus Christ is life eternal (John 17:3).
So you know a lot of things and persons and places, and aren't much different for it? Well, know can mean a lot of things, from hearing a little fact on the radio or in the newspapers which sound plausible enough to believe in, through to by way of long arduous research proving a hypothesis beyond any reasonable doubt or discussion (you wish...). In fact, in the Bible it even extends to the sexual act and relation. Anyways, to sum it up in a few words: To know him, is to love him.

Still, as with Job, definitely a most righteous fellow, we're stuck with flesh upon us that shall have pain, and souls within us that shall mourn. As with Job, this gets us down and out sometimes. Far be it from me to dangle a future promise in the face of one afflicted by present ills, but I'll simply say it in order that we may know something of where we are today. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4) Why? Because God shall dwell with them. Observe, God shall do the wiping, not well-meaning christians on a comfort crusade, death, sorrow, crying and pain, all very real and present are with us, for better and for worse, til we have some real changes on this earth. The sooner the better...

I'm afraid I sound like a teacher, which certainly would be a case of the blind leading the blind. I'm new in the block, so go ask another for directions. Don't take my word for anything, go seek the Book for yourself (which is what Bible means, but of course someone deemed a “religious” word necessary). And, lastly, primarily, shortly, go walk a few steps with Jesus. Know him.