This morning, the British Press have been talking about the “Blue Monday” effect. Monday 16th January is reportedly the lowest point in the year for many of us. I think the British Press have a point.
The credit card bill following Christmas has popped into our inbox, the weather is cold and grey, all the decorations are gone and the the traffic is heavy and the journey to work grim.
Add to that the sadness many of us felt as we began to come to terms with the loss of childhood heroes in 2016. David Bowie, George Michael…the list goes on. Their loss underlines our own mortality…their stardom however bright…was temporary. How much more temporary are dull and mundane us?
As a Star Wars fan since 1977, I felt the loss of Carrie Fisher keenly over Christmas. She was a big childhood favorite of mine. A mix of nostalgia and excitement about the new Star Wars movies for these past 12 months has made her loss that much bigger for me. She has fallen “from a bigger height”, as she herself said of her mother recently.
Blue Monday sucks. It leaves me feeling low, maybe ripped off. Resigned to an uncertain and temporary future.
And it reminds me of a quote by the author C S Lewis:
If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.
— C S Lewis, Mere Christianity
I desire for there to be a future that is bright. I long for something to look forward to. Yes – I can book a holiday in the sun…or a new movie to watch…but actually that too will end. But there is something in me that longs for the joy NEVER to end. That’s why I’m continually chasing it in my purchases, in my relationships, in my distractions. Yet I never seem to find it. When I think I have found it…I find myself suddenly looking towards a further hill a distant horizon that I must now get to. And so on.
This is a recipe for disillusionment.
Unless.
Unless we consider what C S Lewis himself became convinced of. That you and I…and he are actually built for another world. That this world is going to come up short. It’s predictable. Its inevitable. In our life here – we will be left with a sense of disappointment and disillusionment. Let’s face it together.
But – this is not all there is. In fact – we can tell that this world is not all there is from the constant longing that seems never to be filled within us. We are built for more. It’s written thru our cells, it bursts out of the thoughts and the emotions that rush thru us.
The Bible points towards the truth that…while this world will mean suffering…the future will be glorious. It’s what we are actually built for. Where the fulfilment finally awaits us.
Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
— 1 Peter 4:13, The Message
For myself – I choose not to reject God when life is hard. Rather – I choose to walk thru this veil of tears with the guidance of the one who has made me especially for that coming fulfilment and glory.
Tell you what. The little green dude from Star Wars was right!
Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter.
— Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back