When Will Rogers Wept
Will Rogers, America's favorite cowboy-comedian of the 1930s, was adept at making others laugh. But one day his friend Milton Berry, founder of a rehab center in Los Angeles for accident victims, saw Will Rogers weep as he ducked into a bathroom to release his pent-up sadness over the victims' disfigurements. He sobbed like a child, then emerged from the rest room smiling and laughing as before. He could not let the public see him weep lest his tears should spoil his humor.
Christianity, unlike Stoicism, is marked by compassion and willingness to enter into the pain of another's suffering. Jesus was unafraid to let his own tears show over the death of his friend Lazarus (John 11:35). Our tears are precious to God, for He numbers them just as surely as the hairs on our heads.
"You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book" (Psalm 56:8).
Blue Monday
Fact or Fiction? The last Monday in January is the saddest day of the year.
The answer? A little of both.
Some six years ago a travel company, Sky Travel, paid a supposed British research psychologist, Cliff Arnall, to devise a formula for calculating the saddest day of the year. According to an MSNBC report, the equation (based on personal interviews and variables like the rate of absenteeism from work and personal debt) is "broken down into seven variables: (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action."
So what was the answer to the equation? Blue Monday--the last Monday in January. A combination of bad weather, lack of sunlight, being shut in, accumulated debt from Christmas and New Years all work together to leave us feeling less than hopeful and energetic.
Is it good science? That's debatable according to many in the field. The author of the equation was not a staff research scientist, nor even a Psychology professor, but merely a part-time tutor at an esteemed UK university. But it is nevertheless generally agreed that for many this is not a "happy" time of year.
As Blue Monday rolls around this year, we would do well to engage in a little self-examination. Upon what list of criteria do we base our happiness? Our contentedness? Without Christ in the equation, a beautiful, sunny day enjoyed in perfect health and wealth is far sadder than any dreary day spent in the light of hope in Christ.
Jesus is the real answer to our search for happiness. Every day without Him is a sad day.
“For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28a).
Illustration Exchange
This Too Shall Pass
Jewish commentator Avi Solomon asks this question ...
What do Abraham Lincoln, The Ben Ish Chai from Baghdad, Fariduddin Attar, and Anton Chekhov have in common?
It turns out to be a special fondness for an ancient Jewish folktale, which goes like this:
'King Solomon once searched for a cure against depression. He assembled his wise men together. They meditated for a long time and gave him the following advice: Make yourself a ring and have thereon engraved the words 'This too will pass.' The King carried out the advice. He had the ring made and wore it constantly. Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful.'— Israel Folklore Archive # 126
Solomon goes on to say how the folk tale and the phrase, "This too shall pass," Gam Zeh Yaavor in Hebrew, morphed and spread throughout the world and over the centuries, with a version of the tale eventually even making its way into a speech by President Abraham Lincoln:
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!’ — An Address by Abraham Lincoln Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859
Solomon concludes:
It is easy to have recourse to the consolatory phrase 'This, too, shall pass' in times of trouble and distress, but the trick lies in remembering the phrase during the good and happy times, when it is a potent reminder to value and live life to the full.
Look to the ring and you will become wise as Solomon or Lincoln!
And it's not just the remembrance of the phrase Solomon finds impactful; it's the wearing of the ring itself, which he says "has a powerful emotionally therapeutic effect and acts as a perpetual memento vita, reminding one to appreciate and celebrate every passing moment."
It's THE perfect phrase, true at ALL time in ALL situations.
In tough times, let this timeless truth bring you hope and encouragement. In good times let it ground you in humility, for even that which is good today may quite suddenly fade and whither.
"As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal " (2 Corinthians 4:18, ESV).