Sometimes, it's okay to be sad...

We have this tendency of trying to always act like everything is just perfect, even when we're having a really hard time, and really, trying to stay positive and be content with our lives is a great thing. But if, when tough times come, we hide our sorrows behind a mask of false optimism and feigned felicity, we are just deceiving ourselves and shunning the aid that might be rendered by those around us.

The Bible tells us that at the death of Lazarus, Jesus wept. I've noticed that a lot of people try to interpret this, saying that He sought to empathize with others and so shed tears of sadness. I honestly don't know for sure the reason for His tears (or if there was a conscious reason) -- maybe it really was to empathize with Mary, to show her compassion in a moment of great sorrow --, but I have often wondered whether it is all much simpler than that, whether those tears were but the tears of a man whose friend has just died. In mortality, Christ was subjected to the same pains and disappointments that we endure, and so, at least in my mind, it doesn't seem so odd to think that Christ experienced sorrow at the death of a friend. How great was His joy, then, to know that Lazarus would walk again! How great the joy to know that our sorrows are but a drop in the pools of eternity and that great things lay ahead for each and every one of us! We need not forever dwell in sadness, but when those tough times do come, we don't need to feel bad about being sad either. The fact is that there is value and meaning to be found in sorrow -- not in pessimism and feeling bad for oneself, and certainly not in perpetual sadness-- but life's disappointments make the good times sweeter and teach us timeless truths. They provide us the contrast necessary to truly understand joy and, by daily striving, to at last make it our own.