“What do you wanna be when you grow up?”

“What do you wanna be when you grow up?”

“Happy!”

This is the response you can expect from a 7 year old who is not too fussed about life, before thoughts of a career, job and a family come into play. At least this is how I would assume they would answer. 

I say this to say, when I was in school my main desire was optimal happiness. Anything that made me sad was evil, demonic, and was just not for me. I spent so much time imagining happiness, that when it was present I was unable to engage it, I had idolized it to the point that it became such a distant concept. I lost the ability to be present. I think a lot of people in our generation suffer from that, idolizing emotions they never allow themselves to feel; desiring nostalgia through the lens of a camera rather than a lived experience. 

Just a thought.

During the sermon on the mount Jesus makes a statement that changed my perspective on life entirely, He says that God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). And so the seasons of life, their challenges and emotional packages fall on everybody. This is merely a part of life, to be experienced and not held on to. Each season and emotion having its own blessings pre-packaged within them. King Solomon, the philosopher and Father of wisdom, lets us know that sorrow is better than laughter, for sorrow has a refining influence on us. ‘Better’, in this context, not meaning the other is bad, better just meaning it is better. 

And so, I strongly believe that emotions have so much to offer us. They make way for the deposit of lessons and gems. They allow us to explore the depth of our humanity and the height of our divinity. But ultimately they are to be experienced, not to be feared, or pursued, simply just experienced. Let ‘it’ pass through you. Instagram