Good Grief

Charlie Brown only wants to be understood. Is that asking too much? Trouble is, most of the people in his cartoon life just don't get him, and despite his frustration, his response doesn't get any rougher than, "Good Grief!" Everyone is misunderstood. Everyone experiences frustration from it. Grief happens when we are separated from something we believe is essential to our well-being. It might be a loved-one's death, a relationship's dissolution or the discovery of a deeply held belief's fallacy. Grief can cause a unique, excruciating pain that stabs to the depths of our souls, that can make us wonder if we will survive it, or if we want to survive it. Even such extreme grief can become good if we allow it to change our lives and make us emotionally, mentally and spiritually stronger. Maybe Charles Schultz never meant for us to analyze Charlie Brown's frustrated exclamation, but even the most unlikely subjects often yield deeper meanings when closely examined. "Good grief" suggests the best grief of all: the life-changing grief that occurs when God first opens our sin-blinded eyes for a glimpse of His holiness. At least four kinds of traumatic separation occur in that moment of divine revelation: first, our prized illusion of personal goodness dies. Second, the relationship with our world that we've built upon that illusion dies. Third, the deeply held belief that God loves us because we're not so bad dies. And once we accept those three deaths, our long list of prized excuses dies. Schultz's Charlie Brown always seemed aware of his imperfections. If he were real, I can just hear his exclamation when God made His infinite love known to the poor, bald-headed kid, "Good grief, it was there all the time."