Happy all the day?

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.

All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.

Light in the messenger’s eye brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 15:13, 15:15, 15:30, 17:22

Martin Chuzzlewit isn’t one of Dickens’s best known novels, but it has a varied cast of characters, one of whom is called Mark Tapley. Mark is known for his indestructible cheerfulness, his refusal to let anything get him down, indeed for his quirky habit of actively seeking out difficult and trying circumstances in order to test his optimistic good nature against them. He seems a pretty unlikely character, I must admit – but every time he comes into the story he makes you smile.

I’ve grouped together four Bible verses from the book of Proverbs, all on the theme of cheerfulness. It’s a long time now since I read Dickens’s book, but dipping into Proverbs somehow dredged him up from the mists of my memory. I wonder if Mark Tapley had nourished his personality on these and other similar verses?

The question arises: How should we understand them? As they stand, they are quite simply statements of fact, of the way things are - yes, a cheerful spirit is good for one’s health, both mental and physical, no doubt about that.

But does the writer also intend his readers to treat these statements as aspirations, even as commands? Is he indirectly telling us to make sure we are always cheerful? Even more, is he suggesting that if we fail to do so we are guilty of sin? If so, many of us could well reply, “That’s all very well for you to say, but if you knew what I am going through at the moment I don’t think you would say it so easily. Tears of pain, not smiles of pleasure, are the best I can muster at the moment.” Think of some of the atrocious sufferings of people in Gaza or Ukraine.

As always when we read the Bible, the key thing is to take it as a whole. The Bible is a very big book, and different passages put different emphases on different questions; they sometimes, in fact, might seem to contradict one another. Thinking about these four verses from the centre of Proverbs, various things need to be said if we are to get the full biblical context.

First: No, they are not to be viewed as commands.

Part of the enjoyment of Proverbs is the way it tosses out observations and opinions almost at random, as if to say to the reader, “Here you are, what do you make of this?” The Bible wants to get us thinking, and one way Proverbs achieves this is by setting up contradictions (call them “paradoxes” if you’re uncomfortable with that word). Proverbs 26:4 and 5, for example, seem on the face of it to be in flat contradiction with one another (no wriggling allowed, please!).

So… not commands to make us feel guilty, but statements to make us think.

Second: the Bible never turns a blind eye to the reality of human pain.

Far from it! The people we read about, both the big names and the unnamed “ordinary people”, are anything but “now I am happy all the day” in their relationship with God. The Psalms, an obvious example, reflect both intense joy and deep misery. And at the centre of Christianity stands the cross, truly an agonising emblem of pain, humiliation and suffering. Our little snippets from Proverbs are anything but a full picture, so while of course it is good to nurture a cheerful, trusting spirit, it would be ridiculously naïve to imagine that we may never be overwhelmed by negative feelings.

Third: these verses about cheerfulness are not a license for irresponsibility.

Sometimes you meet Christians who are so determined to have the “cheerful face” that reflects a “happy heart” that they brush aside the troubles and sorrows of life as being of no importance: “Well, God’s in control, isn’t he? And he loves us, doesn’t he? So why waste time worrying?” The result of such a shallow approach to life is that friends or other members of the family end up shouldering the heavy burdens while the person in question takes shelter behind an artificial smile. And what kind of witness is that? In times of trouble God expects us to roll up our sleeves so far as we are able and get on with the job of battling through.

Fourth: in spite of what we have said, the basic truth stands out clearly: Christianity is a trusting and positive faith, and therefore, whatever sufferings we may experience, our basic mind-set is positive. We cannot and should not try to brush our trials aside, but by God’s grace we can and should tackle them with faith and confidence. We may – indeed, we should – call on our brothers and sisters in Christ for support, whether spiritual or physical, but then what else is the church for?

Putting it starkly: in principle a miserable Christian is a contradiction in terms. We worship Christ crucified and risen again, and every story is assured of a happy ending. I knew of one Christian who admittedly had had quite a hard life and who you rarely caught smiling; I heard it said of her that she was admirable in many ways, but was in fact “a bit of a misery-guts”. I don’t defend the person who used that unkind expression, but it was hard to avoid the element of harsh truth in what they said.

In Philippians 4:4 Paul urges his readers to “rejoice in the Lord always”. Then, as if to ram it home, he repeats it: “I will say it again: rejoice!” Good words to keep in mind.

Dear Father, thank you for the cheerful, positive Christians I have known over the years who have lifted my spirits, lightened my burdens and brought a smile to my face. Please help me in my dark times not to falter in faith, but to trust through thick and thin, and to be a good example to those around me. Amen.