Aug 2, 2022

The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker

He has filled me with bitterness…my soul is bereft of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is (Lamentations 3:15, 17 RSV)

Sometimes I hear it said that God doesn’t promise us happiness, just the “ability” to face unhappiness with equanimity. In other words, keep your expectations low when praying for relief and change in your situation, and concentrate, rather, on peace within and acceptance without.

I think that can be a counsel of despair. It is what famous Stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca used to recommend. The former persecuted Christians, and the latter committed suicide. As a form of wisdom, it lacks hope, and mainly it lacks faith in God.

Jeremiah, who wrote the Book of Lamentations, was a brilliant, unhappy prophet. But he didn’t like being unhappy. In my study at the churches where Mary and I served, I always had hanging on the wall Rembrandt’s painting of Jeremiah contemplating the fall of Jerusalem that resulted in the Exile. The painting is as deep as The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Rattigan, 1952), and I don’t regret its forever presence with me during decades of parish ministry.

But I hope he is happy now. Jeremiah, I mean!

Happiness is a gift from God, and yes, it is both inward and outward. But God wants us to have it. He wants us in position to love another person and be loved by that person. He wants us to hear good music—like Katrina and the Waves. He wants us to not be alone.

Please don’t lower your expectations of God in relation to your personal happiness. Lift them. He is perfectly capable.

[Paul Zahl, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]