Misery

Well, no, the picture doesn't have a whole lot to do with the post. I just googled Misery to see if any good images would come up, and they were all from the movie. And I thought that was a little more fun than some girl crying or something. My boys thinks she looks like me.... or I look like her.... hmmmmmmmmm........

The interesting thing is we human beings have a guide built into us. This guide is supposed to inform us about where we are on our path, and more especially when we get off. This particular guide is called "Misery". Misery is an interesting thing. We are supposed to listen to Misery. Misery helps us know when something is wrong. If your stomach is constantly making you miserable, something is wrong. We see Misery as an enemy, but it is actually a strong ally. But because we want to avoid the things misery is pointing out, we see the misery itself as an enemy.

Kind of like the highway. The painted lines are there, and then there's grooves they texture into the side to give an even stronger warning. Those are misery. They are telling you that you have a persistent situation that is doing damage to your car and will only get worse if you don't WAKE UP! They aren't the enemy though, they are a friend.

Now in Christianity we are taught to always doubt our emotions. (Remember Dr. Dobson's book Emotions, Can You Trust Them? No, I didn't read it.) We are constantly told emotions are deceptive and we have to listen to reason. That is an open door to abusers and manipulators. You can't just say "This is miserable, I'm leaving." There has to be all these thought out reasons. (I mean, in reality, you can always leave. But people who are trying to be thoughtful and open to criticizing themselves and all that, we tend to get these thoughts in our head. Anyway.)

And then they call in all these positive virtues that we all want to be true of us, like faithfulness, diligent, and one I remember being repeated a lot for a while "A long obedience in the same direction."

There's probably enough in there to unpack for a whole 'nother blog post.

But anyway, this is the kind of manipulation in the church that keeps people from looking at what misery has to say to them.

I'm not saying that the response to an acknowledgement that you are miserable should be an instant change in circumstances. But I am saying Misery is a voice that should be listened to. I am saying you shouldn't judge yourself for it. Not guilt trip yourself over it (I guess I'm just not a very thankful person. I mean look at those people over in Iraq-or whatever-who have it so much worse than me, blah, blah... have you EVER been able to help yourself by guilt tripping yourself? Cut it out.)

If you are miserable, why?