The Frailty of "Positivity"
You were made outta plastic, fake
Perhaps this is a reaction to some responses I’ve seen to Juice Wrld’s recent death, perhaps it’s because those responses are similar to those I hear when I say I battle with depression and the occasional suicidal thought, but anyway, I have come to hate the statement “Be Positive” and its many variants. What pisses me off even more is when “Positive thinking” is used to interpret scripture and given a “christian” spin. I wonder if the statement “Be Positive” helps anyone with emotional and psychological problems, I happen to believe it makes it worse, it has for me.
If anyone thinks the book of Job has anything to do with “positivity”, or thinks ecclesiastes with its “all is vanity”, has a “positive thinking” aspect, you need your extremely nihilistic eyes open to the reality this “plastic” packaged world hides behind its billboards and completely narcissistic “motivational” speeches. Perhaps I’m harsh, but you’re just adding to the problem, not solving it. Christianity is a gospel of good tidings, yes, but that doesn’t mean it is a frail positivity that is simply thinking “good” as if good is something we all like and enjoy in “good vibes”. Good can be painful, the cross should tell us that. The resurrection doesn’t negate the cross, it fulfills it. Christ still has his scars. There is nothing “positive” about martyrs, and even death. They are tragedies, tragedies Christ uses, but tragedies nonetheless. You do not cover grief in “positivity”, or blame someone’s death on “he spoke negativity”, you’re not saying what you think you are saying, you are just being rude, mean, and completely insensitive.
There is a darkness in the world, a mystery of emptiness. The modern world is full of it. Many see it, and (rightly) despair. They see it when they see beyond the filters and the packaging. They see it when they sit at home in silence and the reality of their fruitlessness dawns on them. No matter the money, there is no purpose. Not even the Christian is exempt. Unless we actively remind ourselves of the completely ridiculous message of resurrection life, we enter a spiral of hiding our anxieties behind “positivity” and entertainment, chasing highs in church services, concerts, weed, or whatever, until we run out and crashland on our beds in realization of the preacher’s claim in Ecclesiastes: All is Vanity.
If you’re looking for encouragement here, the only one I have is this from the Nicene creed: “We believe in the resurrection of the dead”. There is no bigger hope. It is not positivity, it is hope, the only hope I have anyway. Vanity is turned to beauty in that hope, my frailty I see as a gift. I do not shy away, for God is best revealed in the most “negative” of people groups: The destitute and mourning. He holds all our hands no matter what, even if we don’t feel it. I pray he breaks my delusions of self sufficiency. I have no power, I have no worth apart from him. His worth is revealed in my worthlessness, in that is my worth seen. It is in my deepest pain that He is most present, it is that darkness that He is most bright to me. Amen.
Rest In Peace Juice Wrld