Face fell

“But at these words his face fell, and he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property.”  Mark 10:22

Face fell – The face is the weather map of the soul.   If we are attuned to the signs, we can read the soul as easily as watching the local news.  Jesus was keenly aware of these signs.  In fact, he often could read them before anyone else understood the meaning.  So it is with this rich man.  Jesus reads his soul and makes a forecast that spells cloudy, gloomy days. 

The young man who came to Jesus displayed a bright and sunny face.  But under the veneer of a summer day lurked the climatic conditions of a powerful thunderstorm.  Jesus was not distracted by the cheerful smiles.  He saw what was really there – a large cloud of ego.  Jesus merely revealed what this man refused to acknowledge.  His life was about himself.  Once he heard the words from Jesus, his face displayed the truth.  The sunny day suddenly became a dark cloudy sky full of rain.

Mark uses the Greek word stugnazo.  The word is used metaphorically about the weather.  It means, “to be somber, gloomy or sad”.  It paints a picture we can all understand.  We even have cartoon characters that live under a rain cloud.  That’s what often happens when Jesus asks us to change the priorities of our lives.  Unless we value obedience more than self, we will get our own dose of stugnazo. 

I don’t like stugnazo weather, outside my home or inside my soul.  But I find that my face often displays this gloomy cloud when I think my plans for life are not coming true.  It might not be anything worth writing home about.  Just something annoying that doesn’t seem to get fixed the way I want it to.  If I let that cloud grow, I usually end up blaming the only person I can think of who controls the weather – God.  But I make my own internal weather.  God gives me every reason to trust His plans.  If I don’t, then the gloom is my own fault.  I have forgotten every lesson in the Beatitudes:  life is not about what I can get from it but rather how I react to what it gives me.

Your internal weather is showing!