Physical strength comes from muscles being exercised. To gain great muscles means great testings. Gaining the strength is not always the goal in the beginning. Moving hundreds of bales of hay may be the goal, but strength will emerge because they were moved. Measuring physical strength is really not too difficult. We are able to weigh the object to be moved and whoever lifts the most has the greatest strength. Strength requires constant attention or it fades. The vigilance to maintain drains energy from being applied elsewhere and is a continual cycle.
Emotional strength comes from the experience of life combining with the knowledge of what has been and what is hoped for. It is not easy to bury young children. It is an experience we would rather not have. Burying means a certain finality to what we naively envisioned as a long life. I have seen some bury infants, some older children, some young adults and eventually even the elderly. All these times are faced with different levels of emotional strength. Our expectations collide with the results of real life and produce the boiling pot of weakness which simmers into strength with time and supporting love.
I was reminded today of the pain and sorrow some folks continue to carry to their own hurt. I’m not criticizing or condemning them in any fashion. They hurt from the agony life has inflicted upon them.
They sorrow from the expectation which was violently ripped from the treasure they had expected. I do not personally know that pain. I do not live with that affliction. But I cringe at their burden.
The words which I can say or write about their hurt need to either matter for their healing and comfort or they need to be silent. They have had all the politeness they can handle. They are desiring nothing from me, they just want it to be like it was before, like it can never be again. I have heard those who have never gone down that path say “They just need to get over it and move on”. They won’t. It is not a pain that they can ever get over. I have heard others who have gone through that valley say “You will move on but you will never get over the hurt and sorrow and agony life has so treacherously dealt you”. And that is a lesson I pray I will never have to learn. Because it takes a stronger person than I to wake up each day trembling at the nightmare they have just relived again and say “This is a new day”.
I write about this because I care that others hurt. I want life to be wonderful. In the back of my mind I may even want life to be idyllic even though experience and knowledge have taught me that is not reality. We want strength without trials, love without commitment, healing without disease and life without death.
None of that is possible.
No one would expect plants to grow without water and light. Too much of either destroys the life which depends upon it. I write about this because the pains in life which I have known and caused can only be lifted by a strength greater than any person can find within themselves. Pain can be transformed into joy. It is essential to hope that will happen. Often we pray “Thy will be done”. Sometimes we mean it.
Sorrow has a home in the hearts of those who love. Hope has a home in the hearts of those who have lost. Joy has a home in the hearts of those who have hope beyond sorrows. The pain is real. The joy is real. The sorrow will fade. This is our hope. When Jesus was being beaten and spit upon and whipped for our peace, I wonder if He looked into the eyes of His tormentors. I wonder if He thought, “Here comes the pain with its sorrows, which I will turn to joy”. In case you didn’t notice, let me point out to you that He died before His joy became apparent to us. Some folks may just do that. They may carry such an unrelenting burden of sorrow that you will not see their joy until they enter the rest Jesus promises.
Dying physically bring rest from our labors. Yet there is a spiritual separation from painful events which may allow the pain of disappointments and sorrows to fade away. There is a joy set before those who will reunite with those they have loved and lost. The loss is temporary. The sorrow is short lived, even if it continues all the days of their time on earth.
If we are able to see the death of those we love as merely a temporary separation, knowing we shall soon see them in the presence of the King of Kings, it gives us joy to replace the sorrow. It is this hope alone which allows us to endure the darkness of their light here on earth being snuffed out long before we desire.
The words which matter to each who is burdened by that desolate mountain of sorrow are words which bring hope in the present. Only Jesus can make any words bring hope. Only Jesus can make a heart of sadness count it all joy. Those who have no hope perish. Those who do not know there is a restoration of all things know only emptiness. For their treasure is not replaceable by the many of joys surrounding them.
There is a hole which only Jesus can fill. He promised He would fill it. He can because He has walked in that valley and knows that all of life’s cut off expectations have their very purpose in His plan. We don’t have to like it or enjoy it at the moment, but we find joy when He carries the burden and we have the treasure of memories. He said “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.”
He was lifted up. He is lifted up.
He draws us to Him. His words matter.