Look Up From Your Life-me

In the interview of Charlie Rose with Andy Rooney in 1995, Charlie provoked Andy to describe the emotions that he experienced on D-Day in 1944. His description included the sight of horrific scenes that impressed on his conscious mind for as long as he lives the sight of young men’s feet sticking out from the blankets covering them. No life, just dead bodies laying there. His zealous confrontation of evil for the rest of his days, seemed to me, to be fueled by the positive use of the griefs that he sustained on those days. I was mesmerized to see the emotions that were evoked from simple questions and the respect of our elders bearing fruit, 50+ years after the day of such a grief.
I was blessed today to have heard a sermon or study that shed some light on this for me. The real human reflex that recoils from such pain and grief inflicted on the soul, was studied by Pastor Martin and stabbed my soul in a good way, to draw out, some small understanding of the reflexes of recoil that I endure and that I have seen in others with similar afflictions.
I have certainly not been to D day, but my own griefs of the sight of pain and grief cause my own natural recoil and grief responses in depth.
I felt that I understood the alcoholism of some of the soldiers that I knew in my life and the drug use of some others. These medications can dull some of the emotional pains and grief responses that cannot be forgotten.
He was right that there are those who use the scriptures to manipulate the consciences of the sensitive and promise relief from emotional afflictions that do not come, with mere salvation or sanctification of the soul. Some of the scars of grief, will be ours, until we get to glory.
There was, in the NT the healing of the demoniac, who might have been one, who was attempting to escape from a huge grief and couldn’t run from the horror of his own soul. His response was to desire to cling to the Savior of his body and soul. Jesus left him there as a testimony.
I don’t see a promise of panacea from the remembrance of griefs and the desire to escape from the horrors of mental and emotional pains, in the scriptures. I see many of the Lord’s choice servants live in great grief and difficulty throughout some or much of their lives. This seemed always an irony to me, in my pain and anxieties, that Christians are the first to judge the anxiety of others and the pain responses of humanity as being, automatically the sign of not having been redeemed.

In Proverbs 31, it was the godly mother of Lemuel, who discerned that there is a time of need of strong drink for those who are in suffering. Those who were privy to some of the wicked atrocities of war, are certainly among those who are in need of mercy in their dealings with their own griefs. I, personally, have found it difficult to find Christian sympathy in the expressions of griefs and grieving responses.

The discouragement that is exposed in the scripture as the lot of those who have been provoked, by parents is never delved into as much as the permissive lot of the spoiled child, though it is a warning. It may be mentioned, but rarely repented of and almost never dealt with in terms of healing and help for the discouraged soul. {this is just my experience}
Lemuel’s mother included this as a mention in Proverbs 31, that the wise and godly leader, must be aware of the speechless, grieving and “disenfranchised”. {God bless Sr. Anne and many of my Catholic friends and others, who could see the weight of the world on my shoulders and instead of dumping, chose to lighten and pray for the “disenfranchised” souls}
My purpose in writing is not to shine light on my own emotional disfunction, but on the generation, that I believe bore the heat of the day on the subject of emotional distresses; having lived under the shadow of the D-day generation and gave us real and hopeful evidences of the mercy of God, in the light of the conflicts of grief and pain in the emotional realm. It is my conviction, that the generation that came after the WWII generation ran as far from God as they could in the light of the atrocities that they had heard and seen in the faces of their parents. Guess who they found at the other side of sanity and questions about God and His goodness? They found God, right there and they found some of the solutions and they found some of the comforts are useful and God showed them that He has given us all things richly to enjoy.
The picture of James Taylor’s feet in that album make me think of the dry bones awakening from the deadness of the D-day and looking for the life that is ours. First, he dillineates the problem. On D day there looked to be no God. The Hippie Generation seemed to explore this possibility, into excesses and God was there to deliver some of them. Where shall I go from Your Spirit? was the question some asked. "Don’t ask that", says the McArthur generation. God can handle it, we know. Scripture asks that question. The boldness to ask the questions about God’s presence, assumes that there is possibly true faith, waiting for a response. God is there, to be found.

God is our very present help in trouble

and sometimes we need medicine to see Him there. He has shown Himself a mighty deliverer for many, who couldn't see His goodness in the shadows of D-day.Best Years of Our Lives, Homecoming scene