Onward and Upward.

I've always wondered what the correct way to take bad news is. By that I mean I wonder how I should react to bad news in a way that accurately reflects who I am. I think too many Christians put on the plastic "everything's okay with the Lord in my life!" expression. Yet you read through the Bible - heck, just the book of Psalms - and you really see the full gamut of emotions displayed when bad news is brought. People tear their robes, rip out beards, get in fights, beat their chests, and cry out.

Sometimes I feel it's appropriate to get all dark and brooding, y'know? I want to shut up and think over what I've heard. I feel this conveys a sort of pensive, reserved personality. It's like saying, "that's bad news, but I'm not going to let you know how I really feel. Maybe I'll give you the scoop, and maybe not. Because I'm edgy." I'll ride my bike or go jogging to accentuate this response.

Other times I want to attack. I'm not good at physical fighting, which is good because it keeps me out of trouble. But I want to sort of flex what I have - intellect. I want to respond with a borderline attacking manner of dialogue. I want to try and show the bearer of bad news that I'm smarter and much more clever than they are, in an attempt to browbeat them into feeling bad that they've told me. I'll start making my words bigger and more obscure and say stuff like, "That's almost as inconceivably unintelligible as the first words vomited from a child's gullet."

Other times I want to just spew out words. I'll hear the bad news and go on for a while about my shoes that got ice cream spilled on them or my friends and how things are different now than they were before. I'll ramble about stuff that's been bothering me recently, bringing everything from the most insignificant occurrences to the present issues to the surface to be most un-triumphantly exposed to the light.

I guess what really matters is what you do with the news.

After the initial shock is over, how do you respond? How do you seek solutions to problems, resolve conflicts, or change your course accordingly? You can get bitter, that's for sure. You can think of all the reasons why it's not your fault, all the ways you've been wronged, all the misery that wasn't deserved. I've found the bitterness response to be mostly if not fully useless, however.

I suppose you could just shrug it off. You can take a step or two back from your life, back from your past, back from the stupid decisions and troubles you've had. You can realize that you're only 19, you live in America, and oh yeah you worship the God of the universe Whose name is Love.

In the end, you can decide to stay where you are and lament, sit still and fester. Or you can move. You can shake your head briefly, give it all one last fleeting glance, and move onward and upward.

After all, you're not the first one to receive bad news. And you won't be the last.

Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K