Your sorrow shall be turned into joy

Dear friend

Despite our best efforts to avoid troubles and woes, they still happen. Our problems can get us down, sometimes very down. There is recorded in scripture an incident when the Saviour explained to some of His disciples that He would need to leave them for "a little while". He predicted how it would affect them (He knowing the horrific nature of His leaving). But He promised them joy in the end.

I believe we can apply the teaching from this situation to our own troubles, especially if they come upon us regardless of our genuine attempts to live righteously (or maybe at times because of our living the gospel). The key elements of the story come from the New Testament, John 16:20-22.

20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

How true of our woeful world that the troubles experienced by Christian peoples can be a source of merriment to the wicked. How comforting then to have the assurance that our sorrows will be turned to joy. The example of the woman in labour is so very real and relevant. It is sometimes described as the pain that is quickest to be forgotten. The joy at the arrival of a new life almost instantly swallows up the not inconsiderable pain of giving birth.

Our life on earth is short from the perspective of eternity. Pain is par for the course. But we can rejoice in the hope and assurance that we shall see our Saviour again. And as we try to follow His course while He is not personally, physically with us, there is the pleasurable prospect of a joyful reunion; a joy that can be ours forever. I pray that in our sorrows we will remember the joy to come.

Samuel.