relationships (Ecclesiastes 7:1-9) Broken Relationships and Healing

(Ecclesiastes 7:1-9) 

1   A good name is better than good oil,
     And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
2   It is better to go to a house of mourning 
     Than to go to a house of feasting,
     Because that is the end of every person,
     And the living takes it to heart.
3   Sorrow is better than laughter,
     For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
4   The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,
     While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.
5   It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise person 
     Than for one to listen to the song of fools.
6   For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot,
     So is the laughter of the fool;
     And this too is futility.
7   For oppression makes a wise person look foolish,
     And a bribe corrupts the heart.
8   The end of a matter is better than its beginning;
     Patience of spirit is better than arrogance of spirit.

9   Do not be eager in your spirit to be angry,
     For anger resides in the heart of fools.

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

Life is hard!  And without God, it is not only much harder, but it is all pointless, and it is only what it is.  The afterlife will not be any better.  Remember, it is a place that is completely void of God, which includes all goodness, or anything good.  So then why would it be better to be in a house of mourning?  Well, it is there we are reminded that there is death, and that one day, we too will die.  And this forces us to question many things, including:  Where are we going?  What have we actually accomplished?  And, what does life mean, anyway?  

For those of us who have placed our faith in the Lord and already know that we will be going to heaven, we will be asking ourselves questions such as:  What will people say of me at my funeral?  Is there any unfinished business that I need to take care of, or any broken relationship that needs mending?  

Because of God's grace, I can never lose my salvation, but God will only reward me for good deeds that I have done in His strength and to His glory.  But what does that really look like?  Have I been serving the Lord and others in the way that I should have or could have?  Where and how can I improve my walk with the Lord?  This kind of reflection and process is helpful.  Bringing our focus back to the Lord will always bring a renewed and refreshing comfort and joy to our hearts!

There are other kinds of "sorrow" that we can experience, like when we have slipped into some sort of bad habit, and someone who loves us and cares about us, tries to talk to us about it.  If we are wise, we will take that to heart.  Yes, it hurts!  But when we go to the Lord to confess and allow Him to heal us, and to guide us towards reconciling relationships, and toward right behaviors, through His righteousness... our load will literally become lighter.  

Just like when we injure our bodies physically, there is pain in healing.  Therefore, it is foolish to ignore any bad habits and behaviors, because our conscience will be bothered.  And in order to make that feel better, we either have to humbly go to the Lord to reconcile things;  or we have to develop a defiant and arrogant attitude in order to do more things to cover up and mask the bad behavior.  The latter will only lead to more arrogance and more bad behaviors.  And because we are trying to deaden the pain and the guilt, we won't even realize how much we are hurting ourselves and all of those around us!

Imagine if we have broken a leg, but we decide not to let a doctor reset it and put it in a cast for weeks on end, just to avoid all that pain and annoyance.  Instead, to deaden the pain, we start taking the strongest pain killers possible.  And then, we simply limp through life, doing what we can in our own strength, and with what we will call grit.  But this grit is actually anger, and we will only become angrier.  And even though we are actually angry at ourselves, to justify our bad decisions, we will turn our anger towards others and towards God.  And the things that we might accomplish, we will arrogantly state how we managed to do that - all on our own - with insurmountable challenges!

The longer we try to ignore or mask issues, the worse things will get.  And the longer we wait to deal with an issue, the more pain there will be when we finally go to fix it.  But it is never too late to heal!  

We have to know just how patient and just how compassionate our loving God is!  And no problem is too big for Him to tackle!  As the great Physician, He knows exactly what we need and how to heal what is broken.  Our situations might even require that "a bone be rebroken" in order to set it straight.  So there can be pain in the healing process, but the Lord does NOT desire to punish us, He desires that we have a close, personal relationship with Him, where we run to Him for help and healing, in everything!!!