Moving on

A relative of mine had a post on his Facebook page. He lives in Samoa and had been through the tsunami. It was an understandably traumatic time. Many people had lost their lives. Some of whom he had personally known. A few days after the tsunami, he heard his children play with some of their friends. Then he heard something that at first, seemed out of place. He heard laughter. The children were actually laughing and having a good time.

I remember the week of 9-11, the NFL had cancelled all their games that Sunday. There was debate around the country about this. Some felt that it was a mistake for the NFL to do this, that we should resume as normal a routine as possible. That to change our routine would be to give in to the terrorists. The deeper question, to me at least, was how long should the mourning period last? When is it ok to resume our normal activities, to move on with our lives if you would.

And that's the question that faces us today. Is it bad to feel joy or happiness when we know so many people in Samoa and other parts of the world are devastated? And how long should that period be? At our church luncheon today, there was much laughter and dare I say it, joy. I think back to the story of David when he learned of the death of his son Absalom. He grieved for him. But after a while, he got up and moved on with his life. The key for us is not to be paralyzed by traumatic events, while at the same time, not taking taking the necessary time to grieve. In other words, moving on too fast. There are no hard and fast rules. It's just one of those things that each person has to do on their own. You will know it.