Even sorrow has meaning for life

My sister and dearest friend must move again because the place where she lives is not equipped to care for her. My empathy probably brought on last night’s dream in which I was preparing to move. I was going to a better climate but a smaller place and trying to decide what I wanted to take with me. When I woke up, all those dream decisions about what was important extended into my waking thoughts. I’ve been trying to pare down anyway, but this dream made my ‘stuff’ much less important.

Young people don’t think about such things. Most of their life is ahead of them, not behind. They have few thoughts of paring down as most are busy accumulating. The dream threw me into solemn contemplation about life’s milestones, particularly the speed of time as we grow older, and I felt sad.

This dream also reminded me of Ecclesiastes with its gloomy and pessimistic tone yet this morning I can more easily relate to the attitudes of the man who wrote it and concluded that ‘all is vanity.’ I don’t want my life to be vain and without value.

Today’s devotional does not take me to Ecclesiastes but it does go to a place where one life seemed to be headed to a disastrous death, yet His life was not in vain:

“And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” (Luke 22:41–46)

Jesus knew His death — and all it involved — was imminent. He would die for the sin of the world, my sin included. His death would be as ugly as death can be, but He would save millions from the wrath of God that would soon be poured out on Him. No vanity in His life, but it did involve pain and sorrow.

Jumping to Tozer, he writes that some Christians believe that Christ shields His followers from the painful parts of life. This is not true. Almost always, God’s people are effective only after suffering. Sometimes the wounds are humbling and bring contrition, compassion and a yearning to more deeply know God and His love. Sometimes painful days brought us into a deeper kinship with the suffering of Jesus Christ.

Compared to Christ, my suffering isn’t much, yet the Bible tells me to think differently about suffering. It is not a dreaded thing to avoid but often the way God shapes me to be like His Son:

“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:3–7)

If I compare the sorrow I feel about life, about aging, about leaving this world, just turning to the daily news is a quick wake-up — God is going easy on me. Yet His goal remains the same for me and for those in greater sorrows that I will ever experience; He wants us to consider all our trials as means to maturity. I must quit whining and respond like Jesus. Even though He asked that His great trial be removed, He also said, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

^^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, being wounded in life is the path to winning battles against sin. Even a small discipline is far more noble that having no ‘trials that teach.’ A life without pain or sorrow or struggling sounds good, but Your Word is clear; because I am your child and because sin has deeply affected all of me, then I can expect suffering or whatever it takes to conquer that sin and become more like You. Today, I’m thinking about the end of my life too, and know that I will spend eternity with You. The speed which it approaches should be a delight, not bring sorrow. Your gracious promises make it easier to say, “Not my will, but yours, be done.”