sorrow

kevin and i have been talking about sorrow for a little while now.

while in portland, i stayed with my sister joan. she was doing her devotions from a great little daily devotional book called "streams in the desert" that was originally published in 1925. it is timeless in its messages. she read aloud to me that day's message, and i decided that i NEEDED that book. i went and found it, and i LOVE it. of course i had not been diligent in reading it for a bit--life was in my way...and i did not want to just jump in at may...so, i started at the beginning and am now reading a few each day, and eventually i will catch up.....but, here is something on sorrow from that book that i wanted to just share....i am just copying what was for that day...it is long.... but it is GREAT!!!

Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. Ecclesiastes 7:3

Sorrow, under the power of divine grace, performs various ministries in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths of the soul, and unknown capacities for suffering and service. Lighthearted, frivoulous people are always shallow and are never aware of their own meagerness or lack of depth. Sorrow is God's tool to plow the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If humankind were still in a glorified state, having never fallen, then the strong floods of divine joy would be the force God would use to reveal our soul's capacities. But, in a fallen world, sorrow, yet with despair removed, is the power chosen to reveal us to ourselves. Accordingly, it is sorrow that causes us to take the time to think deeply and seriously.

Sorrow makes us move more slowly and considerately and examine our motives and attitudes. It opens within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it makes us willing to set our capacities afloat on a limitless sea of service for God and for others.

Imagine a village of lazy people living at the foot of a great mountain range, yet who have never ventured out to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains. One day a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, turning the hiddden valleys into echoing trumpets and revealing their inner recesses, like the twisted shapes of a giant seashell. The villagers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the labrynth and the unexplored recesses of a region so nearby and yet so unknown. And so it is with many people who casually live on the outer edge of their own souls until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within, which were never before known or suspected.

God never uses anyone to a great degree until He breaks the person completely. Joseph experienced more sorrow than the other sons of Jacob, and it led him into a ministry of food for all the nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful vine...near a spring, whose brances climb over a wall" (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to expand and deepen the soul. from The Heavenly Life

Every person and every nation must endure lessons in God's school of adversity. In the same way we say, "Blessed is the night, for it reveals the stars to us," we can say, "Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort." A flood once washed away a poor man's home and mill, taking with it eveything he owned in the world. He stood at the scene of his great loss, brokenhearted and discouraged. Yet, after the waters had subsided, he saw something shining in the riverbanks that the flood had washed bare. "It looks like gold," he said. And it was gold. The storm that had impoverished him made him rich. So it is oftentimes in life. Henry Clay Trumbull

Wasn't that good??? That is POWERFUL isn't it???

you know, i think about grief and the sorrow that it brings.....the grief eventually fades, but the sorrow lingers.....and lingers....but the despair is removed....isn't that a cool "definition" for sorrow???

i think the key of living with sorrow is to find the sweet fragrance it can be rather than allowing it to turn into a foul odor that permeates our thinking and lives..... we can take our sorrow, and do what it says above--and allow sorrow to" make us move more slowly and coinsiderately and examine our motives and attitudes. It opens within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it makes us willing to set our capacities afloat on a limitless sea of service for God and for others.

all of the pictures were taken just outside of portland at mulnomah falls. the falls are beautiful! and powerful....this is from the bridge in the middle, looking down. see the smashed up log at the bottom of the fall? That is power!

it was a little funny, everyone else seemed to be focused on just the falls.....i was too, but also on the beauty that i saw around me....there i was on my hands and knees, in the damp...with my camera on micro with the lens 1/2 inch away from the leaves....you can see the hairs on the leaves.....and aren't the colors amazing? these leaves are all TINY!!!! yet, look at the perfection!

the tiny mushroom in the pictures above was no more than an inch tall altogether and the cap was perhaps 3/8 inch across.....it was amazing to see the perfection in God's creation down to the smallest of things.....when we only have our eyes on the large picture, we miss so many of the blessings in the tiny things that God has also placed here for our joy.....i think that is like grief and sorrow. when we still have despair, we only see the big thing that gave us the sorrow, like the waterfall.....and we only see the destruction that it brings like the broken log at the foot of the falls.....but, when we let go of the despair, we are then freed to look around at all of the other things that are there too, and they will bring us joy, and we no longer live on the outer edge of our soul, but we learn to know the depth of ourselves. and, we also can see the beauty of the falls in total, not just their power of destruction, because we have a better perspective and see them from a bit of a distance.

i loved the face in the tree that is at the top of this post....it made me smile and think of the witch from hansel and gretel...or, on second thought, did you ever watch mr. rogers neighborhood, and do you remember lady aberline in the land of make believe??? look at those recessed eyes, that nose and chin! yep, lady aberline it is LOL NOPE, it is not lady aberline....it is lady elaine fairchilde. lady aberline was the real live lady, not one of the puppets....anyway, i loved the face in the tree that smiled down on me......