A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22
The longer I live, the more I understand the importance of relationships. Life is about relationships we build with God and with others. For example, it is tough for me to understand how long-time friends can simply turn and walk away from each other over an unresolved disagreement. It doesn’t make sense to me. You laugh together, you cry together, you grow together, you spend time together, and then you decide it is no longer worth investing in a relationship. So you move to another relationship with the hope that things will be somehow different this time. But it isn’t.
Do you know why?
You see, regardless of what you do, you are still part of that next relationship. For a relationship to work, it takes two people laughing, crying, growing, and investing in each other without self-serving expectations. Relationships with others should not be transactional. It is not a “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch your’s” kind of thing.
I had the chance to visit my parents over the last couple of days. No outside noise. Away from home and at the beach. No expectations. It was good. We laughed at dumb things and encouraged each other with words and simply hanging out. We experienced a joyful heart with each other, and it was good medicine. Sometimes you need to laugh without the outside noise of the daily grind.
Relationships Provide Medicine for Misery
So many people walk around today in misery, and most of it is self-inflicted. We do it to ourselves. For whatever reason, we choose to live miserable lives, and it is a choice. Honestly, sometimes it is out of habit that we live this way. Solemn faces show years of weariness and the pain of hurtful relationships. But we should be encouraged because there is hope in good medicine for the weary.
It’s a joyful heart.
There is no pill we take each morning. But wouldn’t it be good if there were? Imagine waking up every morning, opening the pill bottle, and swallowing that joyful heart pill. It is essential to know that a cheerful heart comes from within. It’s not from the outside, and not from a bottle. There is not enough medicine to change a person’s heart. The only hope for that is Jesus.
If you want the cure for misery, you must follow the instructions in Scripture. The medicine of a joyful heart is healing medicine.
Are you medicine for your hurting friends? Yes, I just did that. I flipped the coin. It’s no longer about us, is it? It’s about others. Think about it for a minute before reading further. When we read Proverbs 17:22, we often read it from a self-centered point of view. How can others provide that medicine for me? Life is all about me anyway, isn’t it? I’m the one who hurts, and I need the medicine. What if you’re reading this from the wrong perspective? How can YOU be the medicine for others? When we look at this passage in that way, it changes everything. It’s no longer about us, but about others.
When is the last time you provided the healing medicine of a joyful heart for others?
Relationships Crush Bones
The damage we do to others by our attitudes, words, and actions crushes the bones of our friends. This is a peculiar kind of analogy, but it makes perfect sense. If a joyful heart is a medicine for those who desperately need it, then a discouraging attitude, word, or action can bring the strongest person down. Bones are the framework and strongest part of our bodies. They hold us in place.
But when you crush a bone, it provides a significant loss. It hurts. Ever broken a bone? Oh yeah. It hurts and compromises your ability to function normally. If that is the case, you can see how a crushed spirit can suck the life out of a person and replace it with defeat and despair.
Don’t be the bone crusher. The more I think about it, that would be a great name for a professional wrestler. THE BONE CRUSHER!
Quit Being so Self-Centered
So what is the takeaway? See others as God sees them. Our lives are not the center of the universe. Yes. I just wrote that, and some of you are hearing that for the first time. The sooner we grasp that idea, the sooner we can be the encouragement others need. The longer I live, the more I realize that life isn’t about me. It’s about Jesus and others. When we read this passage in a “others first” kind of way, it changes our perspective.
Who will you encourage today? How will you help others experience a joyful heart full of laughter and no worries? Sometimes we need the medicine of good friends who care about us. But more than that, we need to be good friends who care about others.
Don’t be a bone crusher.