This sign amused me. Most of us have heard jokes about the naive pastor’s wife. Here’s a typical one – she thinks irate drivers are flashing her a “Hawaiian good luck sign” in traffic.
The sign lists all these events dealing with terrible troubles, and then announces a sermon about our “joyous” future.* The comments on the Friends of Irony page for this pic are funny – and pose a question Christians should answer. How can there be joy, when we have all these other things to deal with? Are we naive? Stupid?
Jesus said, “In this world you WILL have trouble.” Christianity certainly does not – in spite of Osteen and his ilk’s anti-Christian prosperity movement – promise health, wealth, or anything comfortable in this world in compensation for our faith. No, it’s very clear: we WILL have trouble. And if we are practicing our faith according the the bible, we’ll take on other people’s troubles in addition to our own. We’ll stand alongside them and shoulder their burdens with our prayers, our time, and our finances – all of which imply an emotional commitment and burden as well. And we can do that, because we can take heart in the fact that Jesus has already overcome the world. Again – naive? Stupid? No – we’re just taking a much longer view than unbelievers take.
Unlike the pastor’s wife who was oblivious to the reality of everything going on around her, we’re heartily aware of the pain and suffering of others. (And this is likely more true of actual pastor’s wives than anyone in a church except the pastor. She carries our burdens along with her husband and probably worries more about cynicism than naivete.) We don’t disregard the suffering – we work to alleviate it and we acknowledge that, hard as some things are to bear, they are temporary. And that’s neither naive nor stupid.
*I couldn’t verify this but a FOI commenter claimed this is an exhibit in a Chicago museum. Just the same, the point holds. This is not atypical of a church event schedule and sermon title, which is why it’s so familiar and so funny.



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