Scripture
Our Lord, punish the Edomites! Because the day Jerusalem fell, they shouted, “Completely destroy the city! Tear down every building!”
~Psalm 137:7, CEV
Quote
Winning and losing are both temporary. Gloating over victory or sulking over a loss puts you at a stand still.
~Chuck Knox
It seems that I learn something new everyday: I saw a word in Keller’s book on Psalms that I’ve never seen before. “Schadenfrude” is a German compound word–schaden means damage or harm and freude means joy. Put them together and you have gloating or celebrating someone’s misfortune or failure. The word was first used in English text in the middle 1800’s. Schadenfruede is taking pleasure in another’s unhappiness. The Edomites were descendants of Esau and relatives of the Israelites but when Babylon invaded Judah and destroyed Jerusalem, the Edomites cheered; they celebrated in the streets. Not only did they celebrate, they refused to take Israeli refugees. Instead of giving them sanctuary they murdered them at the fords of the Jordan before the Israelites could get safely out of their own country. You see the same hatred today with the Muslims: they cheered 9-11. They celebrated this disaster. They, like the Edomites cheered the loss of American lives. Isn’t it amazing how quickly the news media stopped showing these massive celebrations.
Believe it or not, there are three other related emotions. I will list all four:
- Schadenfreude is celebrating another’s misfortune or unhappiness. Or if we turn the word around Freudeschaden, you have sorrow over another’s success usually cause by jealousy and envy.
- Compersion is an empathetic state of happiness and joy experienced when another individual experiences happiness and joy. It is when we celebrate another’s victory of success.
- Sympathy is displeasure over another person’s unhappiness. It is showing compassion.
- Sadism is pleasure over another person’s pain.
Obviously we are not to gloat over the failures of others and we should not rejoice when they suffer, even if their suffering is self-inflicted. Unfortunately, very few people are secure enough in themselves to truly celebrate our victories. Two of the above are good and two are unacceptable. People who celebrate the success of others and show compassion have a healthy self-esteem which comes from our relationship with Christ. Insecure people cannot celebrate your success. They may pretend but deep inside, they are envious. Those who enjoy seeing others suffer {sadist} are sick human beings. Our response is compassion and sympathy when others are hurting and joy when other succeed. Jesus had compassion for and prayed for his persecutors and so did Stephen. What got me thinking about the subject was David’s comments in Psalm 35. David was being persecuted, hounded, and scrutinized. His enemies were looking for something they could use against him. He cries out to God for vindication. Obviously, I am not be hounded like David or President Trump and I do know some of the hounding is probably deserved so I will just leave it all up to God. He is the only One who knows our motives and of course, motive is everything to God. If someone has said something untrue about me: God will handle. It is not my concern. Of course, I have no reason to thing anyone would say anything bad about me. {JK}
Wow, Wow, Wow, what a beautiful day the LORD gave us yesterday: THANK YOU LORD for a triple-wow day. Grace Point had 31 to go to the TOP OF THE RIVER for fantastic food/fellowship. The next time I get a Sunday night off, I think we will go to Greenbriar or we may go back to Guntersville. Joe David sent me a link to a great sermon on SOCIAL JUSTICE [the actual perversion of justice, that the left calls social justice]. If you are an angry white male, you need to listen to the sermon. He will explain why the left is convinced that we have no rights and all that we have should be taken from us by the government and given to the deserving, the minorities. Ironically, white males are a minority. There are more women [who they make no racial distinction regarding] than their are white men. You listen to it and if you disagree, call me and we will discuss it.
Warning: Zales Jewelry may run an add featuring homosexuals but skip it and go to the sermon: he will tell you in his message what Zales and he left is doing.