Comments Regarding a Poster on FB

 Someone posted this poster on FB, and I could not help but comment on it.  It was from an organization that calls itself for highly effective women. I disagree.  I know what it maybe means in terms of the world and pop culture, but some of the richest assistance I have had has come from very miserable people who are being tested in the fires of the furnace. To see someone struggling to figure out his own life is a very real and honest person.  For those of us who do not have it all together and are not perfect, we can certainly benefit from those who also know they are not perfect and who are still trying to figure out his or her own life.  It is a process.  I find the struggling sufferers to be quite inspiring, actually.  But I commented, as below the photo and statement on it.

Don't ask advice from someone who can't figure out his own life. Rather look for inspiring and happy people.

This makes me sad, actually. I find that if I ask advice of people who may be unhappy, especially if their unhappiness is due to much life experience the hard way, I gain far more insights and help than from those who are "happy." Often times, I have found that "happy" people are thus because they have not suffered much. Of course, if you find one that is "happy" due to being in a lull in the realities of life and have come through the other side of the fire--for the time being--then that is good, too. They then can encourage and say we all come through the fire in faith, and also that person if wise will say he or she will be back in the fire again. I don't always trust those whose lives are sugar-coated. Was Jesus always happy? I don't think so. Scripture does not reveal that; He wept over Jerusalem and drove out the money-changers. He was not "happy" in the agony of the garden, nor in his scourging nor on the cross. He was wise, resigned, filled with love and forgiveness, and perfectly beautiful in showing us that we may not have happiness in this life, but in the next. I find some young people turn to me for advice because they know I have suffered and am not what one would call, in this world's terms, "happy". These are people with very serious troubles, and they want advice from someone who has not masked suffering. They know I have experience but also know I grow through it, and they want to do the same. They know I cry real tears and have had very hard knocks, and they evidently see something in my sorrows that makes them feel comfortable to consult me. "Happy" people, to me, can actually seem intimidating and not so real. And this goes especially if the "happy" people are masking their reality, for living a full life does not preclude a life of much suffering.

On another note, why do people for centuries find solace and wisdom in the Psalms? They are written by those who are plaintive and suffering, who feel lost and beaten down and betrayed. They would be not considered "happy" people, and thus according to this axiom offered to never consult others who do not have their own lives figured out, would not be anyone to consult for advice. The Psalms are so very poignant for the very reason they were written by those who suffered and were "unhappy", who saw those people who seemed "happy" and always had things going their way, but yet could not relate with them. Of course, these lowly ones in their sorrow and turmoil and difficulties, turned to the Lord, their Rock and Comforter and Adviser. I submit that highly effective people--women, men, children alike--live in truth and reality and seek help from God or those who are close to God. Those close to God may often be the ones who seem the worst off and struggling, but who cling to God and turn to Him always. That, perhaps, is the difference, and the sign-post of who we should be consulting and turning to: first God, and then those who know and love God and live the way of the cross. And, that is not going to seem all that "happy". It is enduring faith, though, that marks them. Not happiness.