Sorrow and Joy

Who hasn't experienced sorrow?  It is the knife that pierces our soul with the blood of tears flowing like waterfalls from out wounded emotions.

I have seen the strongest men weep. I have wept with them in their despair. I have cried in funeral sermons I've preached. And, I have wept from the painful losses I've experienced. Who hasn't experienced sorrow?

Sorrows like sea billows roll over us. Sadness and grief overwhelm us. We become as helpless as a baby. Everything secure is shattered into a thousand pieces.

There was a time in my life when I lost everything. I lost my job, my career as a full time pastor, and my family. I cried and couldn't turn off the tears. My mind said, "Stop!"  It my emotional pain from he injury and loss I suffered wouldn't listen to my rational voice. I couldn't sleep even though my body was tired. When I was able to sleep, I slept in fits and starts awaking and hoping that it was time to get up. Sometimes, I'd just get up anyway and pace the floor.

I went to a doctor for help. He prescribed a sedative so that I could sleep.  And, he counseled me.  He said, "Before your trauma, you had cubby holes where you placed life into neat and orderly patterns. Those are gone.  You're going to have to make new cubby holes and rebuild your life from the ground up."

I was a broken and broke man.  I had to go back home and live with my mother. I was humiliated and had no one to walk beside me except her. She literally bore my sorrow.

My aunt and uncle also bore my pain.  They had retired to their beach house.  I called them and told what had happened to me.  I asked if I could come and stay with them for a few days. They graciously consented.

My dad was deceased, but just being with his brother was almost like being with my dad. His and my aunt's support were the beginning of building new cubby holes. I rose early and spent the mornings alone on the beach watching the Lord summon the day. He spoke to me in the first light. "I will make a new day for you."  A smile of hope dawned on my face. A glimmer of joy broke through my darkness.

Can there be joy in the night of sorrow?  Yes!

The joy comes from the love relationship God has with us through Christ. No matter the moonless night, love comes through. It is felt.  It is known. It is real. It carries us through when we are submerged in stormy sea of despair. When we cannot help ourselves, love carries us through the flood.

I felt abandoned and alone, but I was not alone. I felt hopeless, but the anchor of hope kept me from wildly drifting into the rocky shore of destruction. I felt despondent, but the shimmering sunrise gleaming over the soft and gentle waves breaking on the shore gave me the light of assurance. Life would go on. What was dead lives again! A new life for sure. A rebuilt life.  But life goes on.

Jesus made sure life goes on. Not only in His resurrection is the assurance of our eternal life through Him, but life goes on here and now through the grief from death whether it be the death of loved one, death of a dream, or the total collapse of life as we know it. Life goes on.

Moreover, Christ often sends love our way through relationships like He did with mom and aunt and uncle. They were all I had. And, they loved me through it.

Jesus sought love even as I needed love in my time of sorrow and distress. As the disciples gathered for what Jesus knew would be their last Passover meal together, He said, "“I have looked forward to this hour with deep longing, anxious to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins" (Luke 22:15 Living Bible).

In Jesus' deepest sorrow knowing His arrest, trial, suffering, and crucifixion was imminent, He desired the fellowship of His disciples. I picture Jesus smiling, laughing, and singing with them as they gathered around the table before the grimness of what He was to say and do in demonstrating his body would be broken and His blood poured out. And, I believe they laughed and talked about events they had experienced and how Jesus confronted the Pharisees that last eventful week before the crucifixion. I believe Jesus had a glimmer of joy in the gloomy doom closing in on Him. Even in His darkest night, His friends with the exception of Judas sang as they left the Upper Room bringing a brief gleam of joy to Him before the terrible sadness of the darkness. 

There was another instance of joy in Jesus' sorrow too. Two days before the shared Passover meal with his disciples, Jesus dined in Bethany at the home of Simon, a leper whom He had healed. While He was eating, a woman came in and knelt at His feet. She opened the small alabaster box she had in her hand and poured its expensive perfume over His head (Matthew 26:7). Her action came from the deep love she had for our Lord. I believe this act of love brought a smile of joy to Jesus's face in the midst of the sorrow surrounding Him.

In the same way, the acts from my mom and aunt and uncle expressed love to me. They cooked for me, waited on me, and in effect poured perfume on my soul which gave me joy in my night of suffering and loss. 

The power of love gives us joy in sorrow. Though clouds of sorrow may lower making our soul dark and dreary, Christ gives  a glimmer of light in the darkness. He gives the dawn in our shadows. The power of love breaks through the pain and gives rays of joy through the rain. 

The shadows of first light give way to the dawning and the dawning promises noonday bright. Even in grief, there is the glimmer of joy, and the glimmer will turn into full joy (John 16:20) like the glimmers of morning's first light turn into the brilliance of noonday's sun. 

That is the promise of Christ. Believe it. The sun will come out again giving you the bright light of Christ to rebuild your life. His light gives you the enabling ability to make those cubby holes to sort out all that has happened to you so you can enjoy life again. I know this to be the truth!  And the Truth sets us free (John 8:32). 

Finish your devotion by listening to "Life Goes on" by the Talley Trio.  Click this link. Or, click on the arrow of the embedded video.