Don't Take My Cloak on a Winter Day

So, today, my mood is.... eh.

Nothing's particularly wrong. (Although frustration abounds in the whiny baby arena. I don't care what Mr. Doctor says...we're starting solids, and that's that!) But I'm in a little bit of a mood.

I was reading in Proverbs the other day, and I came across a verse that I treasure. 25:20 says, "Like one who takes away a cloak on a cold day...is the man who sings songs to a heavy heart."

I concur.

You ever come across those people who won't let anyone else be in a somber mood? (Or maybe you are one of those people...and if so STOP IT!) It's frustrating. It's like...here I am, unhappy about whatever I'm unhappy about. And instead of weeping with me, they insist on telling me to cheer up, to realize that everything's fine.

This isn't what the Bible says to do. The Bible doesn't say to whip out Romans 8:28 at the first sign of sorrow. The Bible tells us to bear each other's burdens, not to negate them. I have to say that everyone knocks Job's friends, but I have to say that they offered Job more than a lot of people I know have offered to people who are mourning.

Look at what the account says they did:
Job 2:11-13 (New International Version)

Job's Three Friends

11 When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

They didn't tell him that everything would work out and that he needed to buck up and get right back into life. They realized that there was sorrow, and they let him have sorrow. They didn't have to make the situation happier so that they could feel comfortable. They sat is silence and mourned along with Job.

So, my questions to you are these: Why are people (and not just Christians) so uncomfortable with sadness? Why are they insistent that we pretend everything's always fine?