Gail’s aunt Georgia, a widow who taught handicapped children, knew what it was to experience tragedy. She had married Walter Dickens, a railroad train conductor, and after several months she became pregnant. But their baby died soon after birth. While she was still in the hospital recovering from the delivery, she was notified that Walter had been killed in a train accident.

Gail asks, “How does one put life back together after a double blow of this magnitude? How does one manage such intolerable pain? For Aunt Georgia, the answer came in the pursuit of this principle: She determined to contribute joy to others.”[i] Most of us under these circumstances would be occupied with trying to put some joy back in our own lives.  But Aunt Georgia discovered that by investing herself in the lives of children who so badly needed her help, she achieved fulfillment and—yes, true joy in spite of her sorrow. The Bible says, “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
When it comes to suffering, Jesus is our example to follow. We may not feel joy in our present circumstances, but there is joy in our future so long as we are “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

If you are in the depths of grief right now, ask God to bring someone into your life to whom you can bring joy. You will experience healing as you do.

 

[i] Gail MacDonald, A Step Higher and Farther (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, a part of Questar Publishers, Inc., 1991), 165.