When your day is long
And the night, the night is yours alone
When you’re sure you’ve had enough
Of this life, well hang on
Don’t let yourself go
‘Cause everybody cries
Everybody hurts sometimesSo hold on.
R.E.M.
Whether you’re having a bad day, going through a bit of a rough patch, or having a bad life, I highly recommend watching R.E.M.’s 2008 Hyde Park performance of “Everybody Hurts” on YouTube. It’s wonderfully delivered and a very moving reminder of our common humanity. It’ll give you some comfort.
Everybody hurts. It’s also true that everybody worships. It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, Buddhist, a New Ager, Agnostic, or Atheist, something in between or none of the above, if you’re a human being, you will inevitably worship.
Don’t be put off by the word. In this context, worship simply means to have something — a person or idea or philosophy, whatever — in which you place your hope, your identity, your meaning. What we put there often has to do with how deeply we hurt, whether we find ourselves moving towards despair.
At the end of the day, we’ve got two choices in terms of what we worship: the Creator or the created. Put your hope in the latter and you’ll be disappointed every single time. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but eventually you will be let down.
God will never, ever, ever let you down. Build your house on rock, not sand.