Frustration! is an okay feeling.

I was hitting wall against wall today at work and with personal things in my daily life.  I don't always take a lunch break but Dale had the dogs for a couple hours in the morning which means that I wasn't taking 10 minute outside breaks every 90 minutes.  I had the dogs again at lunchtime and my frustration level was so high that we took a short ride out to one of their favorite "running" spots.

I needed to get out in the fresh air and walk a bit.  I made a call asking for prayer.  I sometimes let the TV run with movies I've watched in the past just for background noise.  I stood up to take a break and watched the climax of the movie.  That short 5 minutes had me crying.  I guess that helped to release the frustration.  Oh yeah, I cry at movies all the time and when I see someone else crying in public you can see tears in my eyes.

Later, I looked up "Frustration" in the Bible to see what words of wisdom God's Word provided. Ecclesiastes 7 happens to be summarized by one word, "wisdom".

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4

New International Version (NIV)

² It is better to go to a house of mourning
    than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
    the living should take this to heart.
³ Frustration is better than laughter,
    because a sad face is good for the heart.
⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
    but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

 

^{http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+7:2-4&version=NIV}

 

Wow! That is so opposite of the world view.  But really should that surprise me? So often Satan's lies are hidden in beauty, pleasure, and desires fulfilled.  Everything that commercials, movies, and magazines tell us we should go after is what the Bible teaches that we should stay away from warning "the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure."