Heaviness

“And provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61:3 (NIV) or as the phrase is recorded in the King James Version, “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”

The spirit of heaviness can come from almost any source, but usually from the actions or words of someone we love. We feel heavy, or down, or maybe in extreme cases even depressed, because we love. If we do not love, we do not feel. If we do not feel, we cannot have a spirit of heaviness. Maybe that is a reason or excuse for avoiding love, but I don’t think that is a good argument. The old saying goes, “Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”.

The deeper and more you love, the greater the spirit of heaviness you are open to experience. I am amazed by the remedy given by Isaiah, to try praise! How can you sing praise when you feel so low, that you can hardly breathe? But that is our inspired advice. It is described as a ‘garment’, and to me, that is something to cover the whole body, and includes the spirit of heaviness. I reckon we can praise God in ways other than song. How about thanks for the good things we enjoy? How about good Christian family, and friends around us? How about the very person who causes you to feel heavy? Perhaps that is the hardest one, but I think the reason we feel heavy is due to the very fact that we love in the first place. How then can we NOT give praise for that person who made, or makes us love? Yes, maybe the verse is true after all. The only solution for our spirit of heaviness, is after all, praise in any one of its forms.