The Suffocating Culture of Mandatory Cheerfulness

Have you ever felt like you couldn't share the details of a difficult situation without someone immediately offering a solution or a spiritual platitude? Have you ever responded that way yourself?

The required cheerfulness that characterizes many of our churches produces a suffocating environment of pat, religious answers to painful, complex questions that riddle the lives of hurting people. . . . This culture of mandatory happiness actually promotes dishonesty and more suffering.

–Tullian Tchividjian, Glorious Ruin, 16.