Pain in Paradise
Soul Snack 9/35 ... Pain in Paradise
Tears in beautiful places can flow as readily as tears in barren places.
Sadness, even depression, knows no geographical boundaries.
Pain is as possible in paradise as distress is in a desert.
In PS 137 the Israelites lament over what they have lost. They may live in beautiful Babylon, but bear the very visible burdens of exile.
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion. Ps 137:1
I wonder if they even knew what they had until they lost it? There is no hiding their pain as they cry out to their tormentors.
They are literally in a place they do not want to be (although it is paradise.). They give up. Music is no longer in their souls, nor cheer on their lips. Vengeance is on their mind, it is their thirst.
O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us- he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks. Ps 137:8-9
I can be unhealthy while living in a healthy place. I can be healthy while living in a burdensome place.
When I am in a place I too do not want to be, surely for the righteous this is the time to ‘move mountains by faith' rather than have ‘the mountains move me to sin.'