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Killjoy

"You are an Eeyore!" my husband affirmed.  "No, I'm not,"  I protested, "I am always hoping for the best, I'm optimistic."  "You're an Eeyore, a doom and gloom, fearful that the sky has fallen," he continued with a chuckle.  "Well, maybe I am a bit realistic . . . " I paused.  Mmm . . . maybe I have been parading more like Eeyore these days.  We all know them well, the one who can rain on your parade and crush a celebration with just one look.  Yes, it's much too easy to feed our disappointments and starve our joy, especially when we want to feel that we've been right and wrongly used.

He was an obvious fact.  He once was blind and now he had sight.  Yet, no one seemed to rejoice with him over his miraculous healing.  Instead, they argued with one another about how he got his sight.  They kept pestering him, asking "how did your eyes get open?"  They even dragged him into their synagogue, questioning him again with the very same question.  If that were not enough, they pulled his parents in as well.  They needed confirmation that this man had truly been their son born blind and what do they know about him now being able to see?  All the while, the answer remained the same.  Simply, "I once was blind, the man Jesus applied clay to my eyes, I washed, and now I see!" the man replied.  Shouldn't this call for celebration, instead of all of this mindless, ridiculous chatter?  But no, the religious right had so much more to defend. Talk about beating a dead horse . . . 

I attended our women's conference the other day at church.  I was reminded that God is to be praised in all of our days.  God actually inhabits the praise of his people.  I thought perhaps that is why I feel as if God is distant, maybe I am not giving him a place to dwell with me.  Perhaps I have been a killjoy for what He is doing in my life.  Maybe the very things that have failed me or brought me disappointment are actually blessings in disguise.  I don't want to get caught up in pride that keeps me from seeing the joy that He has set before me.


So long, Eeyore. . .

"The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord raises up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous; the Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow; but He thwarts the way of the wicked.  The Lord will reign forever, thy God, O Zion, to all generations, praise the Lord!" 
 (Psalm 146:10)
 

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