My heart is full and my heart is sad all at the same time.
How this seems to be life of late.
Just this week, I have rejoiced, truly happy-tears REJOICED, over the blessing of the marriage of two young people I absolutely adore. I’ve held in awe the newborn baby of two more I’ve grown to love.
And this same week, I have cried as a friend has died suddenly and another friend lost her dad unexpectedly.
I could go on detailing the incredible joys and deep sorrows just this one week has brought; and I bet, so could many of you.
This week, I have lived in Romans 12:15.
God knew we’d live in both—the rejoicing and the mourning with others.
He knew our hearts would simultaneously want to break with grief while bursting with joy.
It is a curious place to be at the same time. It’s a place my heart is learning to walk in, more and more, as life and years pile up.
Maybe, as I live in these middle years it’s become even more apparent how our hearts must move more quickly between these two emotions.
Mourning with those who mourn.
Rejoicing with those who rejoice.
But both have this in common—our hearts are moving away from ourselves to walk alongside another.
When we mourn with those who mourn, and rejoice with those who rejoice, the emotions we feel were first birthed in another.
But then, we share those emotions. We pick them up. We carry them. We feel them with each other.
And as we do, our hearts are drawn together, and in the best, most endearing of ways, our hearts grow closest when they help each other hold tight to Jesus together.
In the rejoicing and in the mourning.
Oh friends, let’s love each other deeply. Let’s encourage each other and help hold each other close to our Father in the rejoicing and the mourning.
Until one day, one blessed, surely-coming day, those tears will only be the rejoicing ones!
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