All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

Proverbs 15:15, NASB

I really enjoy Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and his books on positive thinking. He was a preacher in New York City who built an entire ministry around the notion that this life was pretty good when your outlook was positive, but that it could be pretty bad if you always looked at life through that "the glass half-empty" point of view that most people seem to possess. He really hit his stride after the gloom and doom days of WW II and the Great Depression, for Americans had been struggling for long enough and were frankly more than ready for a different perspective.

Along came Norman Peale with his refreshingly positive viewpoints and the rest is history. His sermons were broadcast across the nation, and his series of books became instant best sellers. Dr. Peale would be the first to point out that this method of looking at the bright side of things did not originate with him, however, for he freely admitted that the source of this important truth was not his discovery, rather, it was from principles contained in the greatest best-selling book of all time: the Bible!

Take the passage we read above as a perfect example of this truth. There are many, many people who go about life just looking for the bad side - and they don't have to look far! The news we receive on a daily basis provides a continual drumbeat proclaiming that all is bad and that we are certainly doomed. The people who report this news have an abundance of material, for it is true that there are many bad things occurring on a regular basis, and these bad things tend to support the majority of people's predilection that we are all doomed. 

Even in our private conversations with those we love, our thoughts turn to this gloomy side of life. We are often unsettled by the uncertainties of life, and it can be quite comforting to have someone to blame for the hard times we occasionally encounter. So, we add all of these things together, scouring the countryside for examples of why things are so bad that we could never be expected to enjoy life, and we end up with what we have: A dissatisfied populace that is often at each other's throats in a maddened pursuit of finding someone to blame for all of life's misfortunes. In short, we are afflicted, and all of our days are bad! 

Bad days! Bad, bad!

The cheerful in life, however, often look at life through a different set of lenses. Those with a pessimistic point of view would say that these lenses are "rose-colored" and give a false view of the way life really is. And this is true of some people, no doubt, for there have always been people who refuse to confront any bad news for the simple fact that they just can't handle it. But I'm not referring to that segment of people who can't handle the truth and who refuse to deal with reality, I am merely referring to those who refuse to accept the hogwash that everything is bad, that it is not their fault, and that they are afflicted.

God had Solomon pen the words you see above, so we know that they are true. And the main truth that we need for a society that feels so sorry for it's unfair breaks in life because the other side is out to get them is just this: The cheerful heart has a continual feast! In other words, we need to start looking for our happiness from a different source than this mean old world that is all around us. We need that peace that passes all understanding and that hope that is an anchor for the soul. You will never hear these truths on the evening news, because those bringing that news likely don't believe that such peace and hope are even possible.

Besides, it's hard to sell the medicine that your sponsor wants your listeners to buy if you don't feel bad in the first place!

So, what we have here is a genuine choice. We can either join the masses of the "afflicted" and experience bad day after bad day, or we can finally say, "enough"! We might not be able to shut out all of the bad news (and quite frankly we should not want to because we do need to know what is going on) but we can begin to place our focus on the Good News for a change. We can begin to scour the Word of God for all of the positive elements that are readily available for the daily Bible reader, and we can then begin to apply these positive principles to our daily lives.

The fact is that those with the affliction of looking at everything from a negative point of view are really going to have a bad life, for this negative part of life is from the baddest individual who ever existed: Satan! But there is another side of life that too many have been completely blind to, and we all would benefit from it if we would just open our eyes and see it, for this side is God's side. God's children are not unrealistic, but neither are they eternal pessimists. It's not that they cannot see the bad things in this world, it's simply that they refuse to let themselves be ruled by it.

There is indeed a positive side of life, and it is a powerful tonic for the weary soul. It is the way of God, and those who seek that way and live it will have that continual feast that is available to the cheerful soul! It is vital that we all understand we really do have a choice in life. We can either yield to the depressing ways of the evil one and live with the afflicted masses, or we can yield our lives to the One who offers a continual feast of cheer for those wise enough to join Him. Which choice will you make? Will you continue to live that poisonous life of the dissatisfied pessimist, or will you choose the life of joy that awaits all who will turn their lives over to Jesus? The choice seems pretty obvious when you put it that way.