Shiny Happy People

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2 ESV)

“You have the happiness gene,” someone exclaimed as I walked into church. “You exude and spread happiness.”

It was a kind thing to say. 

But it could not have been further from how I was feeling. 

The smile I stuck on my face to hide behind was well-practiced and effective enough to engender his response.

The truth was, I was wrung out from fighting with my fiancée. What started as an innocuous comment the day before was like a tiny spark blowing on to dry prairie grass. Suddenly, we were engulfed in a roaring brush fire of a fight. Over the course of 20 hours, we went from harsh words (him) to numb silence (both) to torrential tears (me) to us both staying up all night talking. What should have been our first step (praying) was sadly, our last, undertaken only as the sun came up.

Consequently, we were late for church. We had not slept in 2 days. Our hearts had been broken and then gingerly mended into a gossamer-thin, fragile peace. 

Exhausted, I looked around at our congregation of mountain sport enthusiasts. Everyone seemed to be such a glowing, “shiny, happy people holding hands” bunch. “Does anyone even notice how sad, bruised and broken, how hurting, we both are right now?” I thought. It was the first time I ever felt lonely at my home church, where everyone gets hugs instead of handshakes and nobody is a stranger.

The sermon began, and it felt like it was written just for us. My fiancée took my hand midway through. I squeezed it. Tears of joy sprang up. I was so thankful for Scripture and the way God uses it to speak to us. Someone saw beneath the smiles we plastered on our faces to hide the rawness we felt inside. Not just “someone.” Some One. THE One. God. And in that moment, He healed us with the words coming out of the pastor’s mouth.

Man may not always be able to see past the “shiny, happy” mask we put on to exist in the world. Perhaps we are just too good at that fakery. Perhaps others are distracted, caught up in their private struggles as they hide behind their own “shiny, happy” facades. For some, perhaps they just don’t want to see.

But God! He sees. He knows. He cares. He meets us at our point of need and provides us with exactly what will get us through. We can hide from others, but we cannot hide the darkness from Him.

SFC’s mission is to “be a light on the hill.” I urge us all to ask the Holy Spirit to help us see with God’s eyes—to see past the “shiny, happy” mask someone in our midst may be wearing to hide the pain and darkness they feel inside. Let our prayer be, “Lord, let me not ever be too distracted to see with Your eyes. Let me truly see and allow myself to be seen. Let me be a light in this dark world!”