I really wish more people would go to funerals. I have been asked several times why I seem to be so serious most of the time. It is not that I don't enjoy life. It is the fact that I contemplate what life really is. Without becoming too philosophical or preachy, I just wish more people would clearly think about life and eternity.
There is a crazy verse in Ecclesiastes 7:3 that sounds so opposite to what we seem to live for. It says that "sorrow is better than laughter because a sad face is good for the heart." Wow, that is depressing. Why in the world would the wisest man in the world right something so foreign to our ears? Maybe because it was a wise saying. The writer comes to the conclusion that some meaningful contemplation of life will benefit you a lot more than a continual casual and carefree attitude. Funerals are better for us than parties.
The 17th century philosopher, Blaise Pascal said that humans tend to be miserable so they create diversions in order to take their minds off of their misery. Today, that may involve things like surfing the internet, watching TV, drinking, smoking, being obsessed with hobbies or sports, even dinking around on our iPhones or PDA's. The Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard said that if he could prescribe one remedy for the human condition it would be to assign every human being to sit alone in silence so they could think about their own misery. In general, we despair in our lives and we do everything we can to keep from having to think about it.
To me, there is really one message: Everything around us is temporary and it is passing away. Everyone is going to die some day and that should give me every reason to think about eternity and what I'm going to do about it (2 Corinthians 4:18). So I apologize if I am not always laughing and happy-go-lucky. I just care too much about all the people who are distracting themselves from the true questions of life.
