Is it really well?...Part 3: The Other Side!

It is well, with my soul... Loss it is inevitable..."And after you have suffered a little while," "Weeping may tarry for the night." Loss it will lead you into a valley..."though I walk through the valley." But the Scriptures do not stop there, while loss is inevitable and it leads you into the valley, there is an unspeakable joy that awaits on the other side for those who believe. Without the hope of joy, there would be no end to the pain and hurt that loss brings, but as chosen children of the Lord, we have a hope that joy, joy will come in the morning! "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him'.” "Weeping may tarry for the night, but JOY comes in the morning!" 

If we stay in the valley of the shadow of death, we will never see the blessings the Lord has in store for us. Without loss, there can not be gain. We have to lose in order to gain. Think through this concept...Christ says, in order to gain life we must lose life. Practically speaking, you will lose friends when you choose to be different and set apart; you will have to give up free time in order to study and complete your degree; you will have to give all you have in order to follow Him completely; you may have to sacrifice time, money, relationships, and yourself in order to bring glory to His name; you may have to give what you have in order to bless another. Without loss, there can not be gain; so truly what does this mean? It simply means you will suffer loss in order to gain a glorious and blessed eternity in heaven. 

I think through the past few years of my life, the loss of my niece was the most devastating, heart wrenching, mind boggling loss I or anyone should ever endure, but without her loss, without the Lord having a greater design and purpose for this life, we would not have gained the joy and the blessing of hearing those pitiful cries in the middle of the night once again, or the joy of watching a baby take their first steps, say their first words. Without having suffered loss, we would not have gained the blessing of my nieces. 

If we were to only stop at the loss, if we were to only stay in the valley, we would be hopeless. If the Scriptures stopped at, "weeping may tarry for the night," and we were left to complete the thought, we as humans would never in our own power and strength say but "joy comes in the morning." We as humans would never complete the thought, but we have a Power that is stronger than anything we can humanly conjure up. As believers, we have a hope that the thought has already been completed for us, the journey has already been written, that nothing can touch our lives without touching Him first, and that everything that happens in life is for His good and is for HIS glory! "Weeping may tarry for the night, but JOY comes in the morning!" 

Not only does the Word point to a joy that comes out of loss, or even can be present admist loss, but it firmly declares that after we have suffered, the Lord Himself, "will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us." This verse was one of the first verses a former student of mine sent me via text message after my niece passed. At the time, I could only see the suffering, but as the days, months, and years have passed what a testimony to the faithfulness of our Lord. When a year and a 2 months after we suffered loss,  I saw  joy return to my family's face as my sister held my niece and they announced her name, when I can hold an infant and not think of the loss we felt, when I can hear the words "it is well, with my soul," and believe with all that is inside they are true, I know beyond all that He can restore, He can confirm, He can strengthen, and He can establish us. No matter what our loss may be, a relationship, a child, a parent, an illness, our finances, our possessions, no matter how small or how great of a loss, the faithfulness and the promises of the Lord never change, they are unfailing, they are new every morning He allows us to wake up on this Earth, He can do what He says He can do, and He will restore us. And praise Him we will be a little wiser, a little more guarded (in the good sense), but a lot stronger. "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." 

A quote that the Lord showed this week states that "We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." (C.S. Lewis) Life will be full of pain and hurt and loss. And sometimes to get to the point the Lord wants us will be painful, but "Pain and joy are arteries of the same heart and mourning and dancing are but one long movement in the symphony of God." (Ann Voskamp) So take heart, weeping and sorrow and pain may be here, but joy and restoration are on the other side. "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him'.” 

Praise Him we have a hope that transcends all loss and all pain, only to Him be the glory. This journey is our own, each unique, each filled with our own hurts, but He is with us through it and until He calls us home He is continuing to do a great work in each of us. This was in a devotional I read this week by Joni Eareckson Tada "God is all and in all. Amazing grace, how can it be? That God would share his joy for eternity with me? Remember, God shares his joy on his terms; and those terms call for us to in some measure suffer as his beloved Son did while one earth (I Peter 2:21). If you and I experience hardship, it is paving the way for a deeper joy for all of eternity!"