MORE JOY, MORE TEARS

Can one truly know more joy without more tears? It is like asking if you could know love without also truly knowing hate?

I think perhaps that no matter how cruel it might seem there are times when God using suffering to teach us. I didn't say we necessarily love the lesson or feel at the time we benefited from it, but it is a method God truly does use to help bring us to the point he wants us to be.

Would life truly have the passion and let our faith grow if we lived in some sterile climate where things never changed for the better or worse? It is something that I wish were otherwise, but it isn't.

I didn't say I always enjoy the lesson, merely that I accept it is part of what we must endure. Sadly, I think it is a legacy of life that is part of all existence, not just the element necessary for those who trust to the Lord.

So we cry a river, we praise with our hearts, hopefully with good times and bad. At least that would the ideal, but I doubt most of us if we are honest can say that is always our response.

Life in God's eyes transcends the now. It moves towards a greater destiny. What is awash in our souls from the temporary bleeding is but a heartbeat compared to eternity.

Yet that is easier to say than live if your personal suffering is so much greater than your neighbors. I feel at times God tests our hearts by our attitude towards the suffering of others.

The more indifferent and calloused we are towards the infirmity of others, the more we can face the same trials ourselves. God will visit upon those with the capacity and calling to ease a burden, but refuse to do so a special harshness.

My opinion, but I have seen it happen way to often. And it is specialized. We aren't expected to bear every burden. But unto our lives a given responsibility is given.

That is seen in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. I think it is a symbol of responsibility that speaks to all of us.

Only, I'm sure there are plenty of occasions that we don't respond. Which is part of what God covers through grace if we are forgiven by our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

How often I've pondered the times that I've seen the cold, glutton hearts of indifference who could have made a difference in their affluence and refused to do so. And I understand, regardless of their excuse they will account for such actions and hard heartedness with the Lord. I also know that I too will face the same accountability. And that is the one responsibility that for me is the most important.