Bear My Joy a While

[Old-Timer]

I posted the following in angel333’s intro post, but it’s good enough that I want to make sure everyone has a chance to read it. It applies doubly to those who are struggling with any kind of faith transition:

“I Pray You . . . Bear My Joy a While” (http://bycommonconsent.com/2011/09/29/i-pray-you-bear-my-joy-awhile/)

[Ann]

Beautiful. Thanks for posting it.

“. . . both our blessings and our trials are so often “unwarranted”–it seems to me that a great deal of the hurt we inflict on each other comes from looking for explanations, for secret sins or particular righteousness that justify our own happiness or others’ misery. Even where such explanations may exist, the likeliness that they are deeply hidden–part of the “profound secret and mystery” locked away in a far room of a “darkly clustered” house we may not enter–spares us the requirement of advising or correcting or praising. We covenant, simply, to respond sympathetically, that is, to feel with our sisters and brothers, to love them as ourselves. Because they are our selves. And Christ’s.”

[Harmony]

I’m glad you shared that. It is important, I think, to be happy for those who have families that are doing well. Share joy with those who have joy, mourn with those that mourn.

[Author]

Posts