Sorrow and Mourning Will Flee

December 15, 2019

From today’s reading…

Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return

and enter Zion singing,

crowned with everlasting joy;

they will meet with joy and gladness,

sorrow and mourning will flee.”

While the end is promising, the path is difficult.

For sorrow and mourning to flee, they must first be present.

The words of Isaiah today are meant to encourage us and empower us to make sense of any present suffering and to make it worthwhile. To make life worth living despite the sorrow and the mourning.

In James 5 today we are told…

Take as an example of hardship and patience, brothers and sisters, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”

We’ve all been sent to minister both to one another and those who have not heard the Good News. With the blessing of being chosen comes suffering and hardship.

If John the Baptist, about whom Jesus said today in Matthew 11 “there has been none greater,” had to suffer and die for preparing the way of the Lord, why shouldn’t you and I? Remember, …

The desert and the parched land will exult;

the steppe will rejoice and bloom.

…Be strong, fear not!

Here is your God,

he comes with vindication;

with divine recompense

he comes to save you.”

All you have to do is…

Stay the course.Keep the faith.Endure.