This behavior is only natural. After all, we are finite human beings, limited in our capacity to deal with tragedy and shock and the blatant evil of this world. However, there is a better way to deal with problem emotions than distraction, denial and delay. The Bible calls us to “count it all joy” when suffering comes our way because such things serve a larger purpose in our lives (James 1:2–4). Trials are intended to strengthen our faith, to forge a steadfastness in our spirit that, given a life of comfort and ease, would be seriously lacking. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at what Jesus told His disciples on one of the worst nights they had yet experienced—the eve of His crucifixion.
Jesus has just told the twelve men He spent the last three years of His life with that He was going away, and that they could not come with Him. The disciples were sad, confused, and (I’m guessing) a teensy bit frustrated with Jesus’ cryptic language. Talking amongst themselves they said, “What is this he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’? … We do not know what he is talking about” (John 16:17, 18). Jesus, knowing they wanted to ask Him what He meant, said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (vv. 19–20).
When Jesus uses the phrase “a little while” He is not speaking about a short amount of time, a span that can be measured in hours or minutes. Rather, He is speaking about a time of crisis, a period of time that is heavy with pain, sorrow, doubt and dread. He compares it to the hour (try ten hours) of a woman giving birth: “She has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” (John 16:21). Jesus is telling the disciples that even though they are sorrowful now, and that their sorrow would increase, the joy they would experience on the other side of the cross would obliterate any sadness they had felt at the death of their Lord. This joy would be so complete, in fact, that it would be as if they didn’t even remember their anguish! When they saw Him again, Jesus said, “No one will take your joy from you” (v. 22).
We all have crosses to bear in this life. No one is exempt from pain, suffering or grief—no one. But God does something amazing with our sorrows! He doesn’t distract us from them. He doesn’t diminish them. And He doesn’t displace them with a more comfortable emotion. He transforms them. Jesus did not say, “Your sorrow will be replaced by joy,” but “Your sorrow will turn into joy.” In the disciples’ eyes, God had redeemed the horror of the cross so completely that when they spoke of it afterward they were filled not with regret but with awe and gratitude:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24).
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).
Do you know, beloved, that the hard thing you’re facing right now, the impossible thing, the painful, uncomfortable thing is being used for your good (Romans 8:28)? Not only that, but the sorrow of it—that deep ache that gnaws at you and leaves you feeling hollow inside—that sorrow will one day be transformed into a joy so real, so overwhelming and so complete that you will not even remember your anguish. Indeed, you will rejoice in the hard things God did because you will have eyes to see the amazing and wonderful things they accomplished! Our faith shall be turned to sight, and every tear we’ve ever shed shall be wiped from our eyes forever (Revelation 7:17, 21:4). We may weep and lament now while the world rejoices, but one day our Lord will return and every wrong shall be righted, and those who mourn will be given “a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Isaiah 61:3).
Let this truth carry you through your trials, sweet friend. Though for a little while it seems like all is lost, don’t lose sight of Jesus—He is there, guiding you through it and offering you hope in the midst of it. He is pointing you beyond the cross, beyond the affliction, beyond the grave to that blessed Day when all shall be made new! May we, even now, see and experience the good He is working in our lives and the strength He is infusing into our faith through our sufferings. May we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the right time He may lift us up once more (1 Peter 5:6). And may we remember that our sorrows, when placed in the hands of our loving Savior, become seeds of a joy that can never, ever be taken away.