Why So Sad?

Why so sad?

Why so blah?

Why so Eeyore?

Ever ask yourself those questions?  I know I have… more often than I’d like to admit.

When I ask myself those questions, I feel even worse for having asked them.  I have no real reason to feel sad, blah or like Eeyore the loveable character from Winnie The Pooh who always walked around with a dark cloud overhead.

• I love my wife a lot… she is amazing!
• I love my kids a lot… they are an absolute blast!
• I love my church community… never been part of something as special as GENESIS.
• I love my job… hard to even call it a ‘job’ because it feels more like a privilege and honor than just a ‘job.’
• I love my home… and by home, I don’t mean just my physical home, rather, that I get to call New England my home.

As I consider my life, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to feel sad, blah or like Eeyore… but yet I often do.  And to be honest, it drives me nuts that I feel like that… which only makes it all worse.

As I was reading the Psalms this past week, I came across a Psalm from David.  And if you’re not familiar with King David, he is emotionally all over the place… a man I can relate with.  But here’s the question he posed:

Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? Psalm 42:5

I read these words and asked myself the same question… why is my heart so sad?

Often, our encouragement, joy and smile are closely connected with what’s happening in our lives.  Meaning, we often look for encouragement and joy from our relationships, or from our work, or from the things we have.  Clearly, when things are off in one of those areas, it’s easy to be discouraged.  But what I’ve discovered is that ALL can be right in those different areas of life and yet we can still feel ‘sad of heart.'  Why is this?

Misplaced hope.

If our hope is placed in the things we have, the things we do, or the people we are with, even if ALL things are going well on ALL fronts, there will still be ‘sadness of heart’ or ‘discouragement.’  It doesn’t take everything falling apart to experience those emotions, rather, when our hope is in any of those things, we will experience ‘sadness of heart’ or ‘discouragement’ because none of those things can actually do for us what God can.

The Psalmist goes on to say:

I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again—my Savior and my God! Psalm 42:5-6

Whenever there is Misplaced Hope – there will be emotions within us that make it feel like we are surrounded by a dark cloud even if the sun is shining bright.

For me, when the ‘Eeore’ emotions kick in, I have a choice to make… and so do you.  We can live life feeling ‘blah’ or we can realign our hope so that it is in God alone – not the things God has given to us.  The things God has given us {relationships, provisions, etc.} will never do for us what God alone can do for us.  

Why so sad?  Misplaced hope!

Why so blah?  Misplaced hope!

Why so Eeyore?  Misplaced hope!

Hope in God, not the things of God leaves us filled (and not partially filled) with gratitude.  And where there is gratitude, there is great joy whether the sun is shining, or the rain (or snow) is coming down hard.