2 Corinthians 6:10  “We are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”

That’s the paradox of a sacred loss.  When something is evil it’s just sad.  When a young athlete like Aaron Hernandez with the world at his feet and nothing but promise ahead of him is indicted for murder it’s just sad, but when a wonderful man like my brother in law Mike slips past the bonds of earth and enters the presence of God it’s sad but not sad, it’s bad and it’s good, it’s awful and it’s awesome, it’s painful and it’s peaceful.   Okay, I’ll stop, but you get my point.

The way you know that you are in the center of God’s favor is that your worst moments are also your best moments. Even when we sin, we repent; when we fail we get up. “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he will rise again.  This concept of the sad being happy isn’t just clever and it isn’t mind over matter. This isn’t visualization and positive affirmation.  This isn’t about working the law of attraction. God chasing your sorrows with joy is an overriding fact of the faith life.  If you love God you cannot escape his glory, it will pursue you like an investigative reporter looking for a story. “We know that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord … “ “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

This reality of God’s love pursuing us with peace doesn’t remove sorrow. That would be so unhealthy and unnatural.  I don’t want to be without sorrow, that would mean I was less than human and God declared that humanness is glorious; just a notch below angelic. Sorrow is an expression of value.  Break a drinking glass and you will feel annoyed, drop a Waterford Crystal vase and you might be inconsolable. If nothing saddens you, then nothing matters to you. We mustn’t strive to be robotically happy. We embrace sorrow, for when we do, God embraces us and there is pure delight in the embrace of God.

“BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN, FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED.”