Happy, Happy, Happy

As I took the 30 Lessons Bible study, I was captivated by the idea that the true, authentic message of Jesus was discovered by Jung, rescued from the clutches of the mainstream evangelical "get everyone saved and throw tracts at them if you have to" church. I still feel Providence has a lot right that much of the Christian church doesn't, and back then I sensed this, and this drew me to Jung and his teachings.

But slowly the shiny veneer of these angels who taught me the Bible study peeled back, and a lifestyle revealed itself that I believe has several self-deceiving aspects. Today I'm focusing on the insistence in Providence that you smile whenever you're around people. In the group I was involved with, they advocated a big toothy grin, and that you do it often to present yourself well and attract people to the new truth.

After I left Providence, I continued having conversations with a member of the group. In one conversation, I asked him if life was hard. He paused for a moment, then finally shrugged and said "not really." For him, life was easy and without problems as long as you have the right mentality. It's all about the mentality, so to ever be unhappy, stressed, sad, depressed, etc. is a breakdown of our mentality and a failure to live in harmony with the new history. With the new truth, we should be happy and full of peace all the time.

I personally believe this is simply not reality. In reality, there is death, pain, hurt feelings, rejection, tragedy, lost opportunities, separation, hunger, torture, etc. To be able to read this blog, to have an Internet connection and food to eat, means we are quite blessed. But no matter how prosperous we are or how many friends keep us company, there is always something lacking. Maybe the person of our dreams turned us down. Maybe we lost our job and don't know how we'll pay the bills or feed our family. Maybe our spouse or child died. Such experiences can bring the human soul to its lowest depths. It's unreal to expect human beings to be perpetually happy and smile their faces off when we go through the difficulties of life.

I like it when people are real, when they are honest with how they feel. There's something beautiful and authentic in that. It gives us freedom when we realize we don't have to be happy all the time, that we're not being ungrateful, whether we're in Providence or Christianity or no religion at all. And this gets to one of the core problems, in my mind, of Providence. Jung presents a beautiful picture of how life works, but it's not how life really works, and it eats you up inside. According to him, the new history has arrived, and with the right mentality you can transcend the problems of this world, become perfect or near-perfect, and live in perpetual bliss. Maybe you feel this is possible once you make yourself well enough through great effort, but I don't believe that's how life works. No matter how much character you have, how noble your thoughts and how much integrity you have, life can really suck and it's okay to cry and be sad when circumstances really get you down. You don't have to pretend everything is okay when you're around other people.