but your sorrow shall be turned into joy

“… but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”  — John 16

simple, and yet this says so much.  this is meaningful to me.  it first became significant to me after a dear friend died suddenly in a vehicle accident a couple years ago.  i clung to these words, it was all i had to hang on to while i tried to make sense of her loss.  i took it hard.  this was the first time a loved one died suddenly and i didn’t know what to do with how i felt.  i just hurt. and there really was no sense to be made of this. i had other resources (like people who cared and that was great), but the scriptures … this passage in particular … was what most comforted me after her death. 

i love this how so often the thing that most brings me peace is what i read in the scriptures.  i am grateful that i remember so many of their words. so often, scriptures phrases run through my head, too, when i am not physically reading them.  i feel blessed that these words of comfort and guidance are so close at hand.  and after experiencing this friend’s death, the blessing (complete joy) i found in this was five people (me being one of them) who used to know and love her … we came together and we comforted each other .. we offered our shoulders of compassion to each other.  we didn’t really know each other much before our friend died, but we all leaned on each other and listened to each other after her death.  so the blessing in that experience was this outcome. it was easier for me to be there for somebody else because i knew how much i hurt, too.  i could completely understand their pain because i felt it, too. 

she was a beautiful example to us of a kind genuine soul.  she had it figured out.  the sweetest thing that i loved the most about her was no matter who or how many people were in the room, she ALWAYS made me feel like i was the only person in the room with her.  and i found out that the other four people also felt that way in her presence.  she made anybody feel that way in her presence. 

she left me an amazing kind example of how to just be with people you care for. 

sometimes awful hard things can and do turn into better and rich blessings.  but we have to pay attention and look for them because often they are not clear to us .. because we often walk through life with blinders to everything else (other than a present stressor).

pain doesn’t always have to stay painful forever.  it can and does soften hearts and helps you to lean on God and others when maybe you wouldn’t have before (because when things are going perfectly well, we tend to forget what matters most to us).

i’d rather have the pain at times because it has taught me how to FEEL more.  my heart would not feel soft and tender towards others were it not for painful experiences.  pain makes it easier for us to feel somebody else’s pain and makes it more natural for us to want to reach out and comfort another who is hurting.  my heart goes out.  my heart is full.  my joy is full. 

it is a blessing to recognize when sorrow has somehow turned into joy.  this is to be living fully-engaged in the moment.

peace, kathleen