WHEN SORROW WALKED WITH ME

THE THINGS I LEARN





"I walked a mile with Pleasure, she
chattered all the way,
Leaving me none the wiser, with all she had to say.

And I walked a mile with Sorrow,
Never a word said she;
But oh the things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me."
r.b. hamilton


As I read this poem,I began to think on what it was saying. I knew that I understood down deep in my heart, what it had to say.

In this life when we are experiencing pleasure, it is fun for the time. It leaves us with happy moments to think upon as we recall the good times that we have had. But I can't think of one time that I truly learned anything really important during those times.

PLEASURE.....Desire; A state of gratification; Enjoyment; Sensual gratification; Frivolous amusement; A source of delight or joy.

There can be many good things that give us pleasure. To serve the Lord, my family, my friends, helping someone, etc.,these are things that give me great pleasure. There can also be wrong things that can give pleasure to people. At the time, it may feel good, even give some happiness and joy.The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:25 when it speaks of Moses when he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, it uses the phrase, "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Moses choose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the 'Pleasures' of sin for a season.

So we see, that even though a 'pleasure' can be a sin, it can give pleasure.

SORROW.....Sadness or anguish due to a loss; A cause of grief or sadness; Contrition, repentance

If we are of any age at all, we have all suffered sorrow to some degree. We feel very sad and can feel great unhappiness. As a Christian even though we have had these times of sadness and sorrow, we can have joy in our hearts, knowing to whom we belong. Knowing that our "days are as a tale that is told," here on this earth.

The longer we have lived, we learn that this too shall pass. It is never an easy thing to go through sorrow. But I HAVE LEARNED THAT IT IS IN THESE TIMES,THESE TIMES OF GRIEF AND SORROW, THAT HAVE BROUGHT ME THE MOST GROWTH AS A PERSON AND ESPECIALLY AS A CHRISTIN AS I SEE GOD WORK THINGS OUT TO MY GOOD. Anything in my life that I have said, "I could never go through that!" I have, and God has brought me through them in such a loving way. They have each pointed my heart more toward Him. I know that there are things that I will go through in my days ahead, such as, should my husband go before me, the loss of one of my children , that my heart says, I don't think I could make it through such things. But because He has brought me through, so many other things in my life, I know without a doubt (even though, it is not clear to me,how?) that He would carry me through these things as well.

I do realize that I would not be who I am today had I not suffered sorrow, grief, pain in my life. I would still be a very immature, selfish person caring mostly about "me."

C0ntrite repentance, I don't want to leave that out of this post. For the Christian it is one of the most important parts of our Christian life. Because we are sinners even though we have been saved by the blood that Jesus shed for us all, we have to have that contrite repentance in our lives. We live, we sin, that is why we needed a Saviour to pay the debt for sin that was owed. We have to have that repentance so that our fellowship can be restored with God when we do sin. Our God is Holy and He can not nor will He look upon sin. But when we pray and asked for forgiveness in a real and sincere way, 1John 1:9 tells us "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." He will forgive us our sins. It says in the verse right before this one that "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." WE ARE ALL SINNERS, EITHER SAVED SINNERS WHO HAVE ACCEPTED JESUS' BLOOD AS OUR SIN PAYMENT OR WE ARE LOST SINNERS ON THE WAY TO A PLACE CALLED HELL. It does not have to be that way for you lost sinner.

So enjoy the good pleasures, yet don't put them before the Lord and make them your "Idols", therefore they become sin to us. But don't hate the "sorrow" that comes into your life either. When it comes, take it out and look at it, see what has brought it and then thank the Lord that He loves you. When you are ready, pick up your life and continue on with forgiveness and to what God has made of you through it all. Use that life for Him. Love and honor Him. He made us, He has the right to do with us as He wants. He made the rule book. If you have a King James Bible in your hand then you have all the rules, that will only make your life better and good. He made us, He knows the way that is best for us. If we choose to make our own rules and way then we will only have a life with out joy or peace to look forward to.

If your heart is breaking today with sorrow, heartache and grief.If you feel your life has lost its meaning and that all the good days are behind you, that is the devil doing the talking. With God, He makes all things new! Even the things that are broken and seem lost forever, it can give you more than your ever even thought to desire. So today, my friend, look up, your help is with the Lord!!connie


P.S. I heard a preacher quote something that went like this a few nights ago, "To have only sunshine, you get only a desert." Into our lives there must come the sorrow as well as the sunshine to make us into what we need to be.

5 comments:

JTR said...

I love this post. You don't really realsize how we are supposed to be thankful in all things, till you go through some "deep waters" and then...you realize you had to be taught some things that only pain and sorow can teach thoroughly.

Sometimes it is fiery trials - but sometimes it is just deep waters:
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
Takes age I think, to discern between them.

TO BECOME said...

Yes, I do believe you are right about "age." Thank you for your comment.connie

Miss Linda said...

A very insightful post, Connie. I too have discovered that it is in the periods of distress, fear, doubt and uncertainty that I have learned to trust in God because there was simply no other place to go. It was only through those dark days that I learned I truly *can* trust Him with every aspect of life and through every trial.

I love this poem from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
and confidently waiting, come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to greet us each new day.

* * *

Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
O give our frightened souls the sure salvation
for which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.

* * *

And when this cup you give is filled to brimming
with bitter sorrow, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling,
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

* * *

Yet when again in this same world you give us
the joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through,
and our whole life shall then be yours alone.

TO BECOME said...

Thank you so much. Such encouraging words, beautiful words.

The place I found the poem had a different author listed. I am so sorry if it was wrong. Such words should certainly have their correct author listed. Thanks for making the correction.connie

Unknown said...

Thank you , Connie, for the reminders and the encouragement! Always need those in my life!