#205 STRENGTH THROUGH SORROW

Sorrow is the strongest discipline in the world, and it gives strength and muscle to our faith.  James said, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him".  Sorrow is the greatest schoolroom on earth.  Peter Ainslie writes: "They tell me I must bruise, The rose’s leaf.  Ere I can keep and use, Its fragrance brief They tell me love must bleed, And friendship weep, Ere in my deepest need I touch that deep." God shows his love for man in the chastening of his children.  The author of Hebrews wrote: "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despite not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."(Hebrews 12:5-6)

I recently read the story of a boy and his father who hiked into the mountains.  They took shelter from a storm in the lee of great, gray boulders that lay like sleeping giants close to the crest of a lonely ridge.  As the two looked upward, they saw the wind lay its mighty hands on a pine that towered from the summit of the ridge.  Savagely the wind tore at it, shook it violently and howled around it.  To the boy this tree seemed about to be tom to pieces.  "Look!  Father," he said, pointing upward, "what the wind is doing to that pine!" The full fury of the blast just then made the pine shudder and sway.  "Storms are an old story to that tree," said the father.  "A tree like that lives in a struggle from the time it is high enough to catch the first breath of air.  Tennyson says a tree is 'storm-strengthened on a windy site.' The strongest trees are always those that have weathered the greatest number of gales.  Besides, the question is not what is happening to the tree, but what is happening in the tree." "The pine does not really seem to mind fighting the storm, does it?" the boy asked.  "No, because it is able to withstand the strongest wind," the father answered.  It is the same with us.  It really doesn't matter what happens to us, but it matters a great deal what happens in us.  You see, one's character is tested by everything that happens to him - he becomes either weaker or stronger.  The test is not nearly so important as the result of the test.  'Me old pine is safe because it resisted the first the first storm years ago and it kept on resisting.  It is getting stronger all the time.  Because of what has happened in it, nothing bad can happen to it.

This same principle applies to us.  Human giants have been disciplined in the schoolroom of pain, sorrow, and suffering.  Success or failure in life will be determined on how we face our suffering.  Sorrow and misfortune are not confined to any particular group.  Even the Apostle Paul had to endure what he called a "thorn in the flesh".  Isaiah described Christ's suffering, "He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom man hide their face, he was despised; and we esteemed Him not."(Isaiah 53:3) Misfortune can become a stepping-stone to triumph.  The cross of Christ, intended as a symbol of shame, has been transformed into a glorious symbol of victory.  Since tribulation and trials are the expected order of life and since these experiences must come to all, the Christian must not dwell too much upon his own sorrows, but turn to assist others in bearing theirs.  "A person is in a mighty deplorable condition who cannot find another person in a worse condition." Christ is the best burden bearer.  Since a Christian follows Christ, he is able to point others to this one who can bear their burdens.  The best way to forget one's own sorrows is to lose self in the service of others.