He Hath Borne Our Griefs

As we watched a video about Christ on Christmas Eve, I glimpsed my oldest daughter discreetly brushing tears from her eyes. I was feeling the spirit, so I thought she was too. Aw!

No.

Turns out she’s pretty homesick. It’s been almost a year since we moved, and it’s our first Christmas ever away from extended family. She misses them. She misses her friends.

She was not crying out of joy.

She was crying cause she was sad.

Oh, my heart.

I told her it’s okay to not be okay.

It’s okay to let your guard down & take your “happy face” off.

It’s okay to struggle sometimes.

It doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong, or not trying, or unrighteous.

It CAN.

But sometimes it just means you’re human.

I thought about it again tonight when my other daughter had a breakdown while playing a game. She was trying SO hard to be a good sport, but kept losing again & again. 

I told her games are about having fun! But she collapsed into an angry heap sobbing, “But this is NOT fun! Not fun AT ALL!”

Despite the dramatics, I found myself filled with compassion for her. I held her while she cried about losing “Throw Throw Burrito.”

Because it’s NOT fun when you’re doing your best, and you still can’t win.

It’s NOT fun when you’re trying to adapt to change, and after a year it still hurts.

It’s NOT fun when you’re trying to live the gospel, & still suffer trials.

But while it SEEMS perfect lives surround us, the REALITY is we’re in the company of millions of GOOD people who struggle.

Including Christ himself, who also wept! Who was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3)

“We cannot become perfect beings of divine joy without experiences that test us... So guard against the satanic whispering that if you were a better person, you would avoid such trials. You must also resist the related lie that your sufferings somehow suggest you stand outside the circle of God’s chosen ones, who seem to glide from one blessed state to another.” Matthew S. Holland

Opposition was always meant to be.

But just as WE covenant to mourn with those that mourn,

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” (4)

He is with us! Stay with Him.

Joy WILL be ours.