Streams In The Desert Devotional

19) Strength From the Sorrow

"Now it came to pass after the death of Moses,
the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spake unto
Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,
Moses my servant is dead; now, therefore arise,
go over this Jordan, thou and all this people"
(Joshua 1:1-2).

Sorrow came to you yesterday, and emptied your
home. Your first impulse now is to give up, and
sit down in despair amid the wrecks of your
hopes. But you dare not do it. You are in the
line of battle, and the crisis is at hand. To
falter a moment would be to imperil some holy
interest. Other lives would be harmed by your
pausing, holy interests would suffer, should your
hands be folded. You must not linger even to
indulge your grief.

A distinguished general related this pathetic
incident of his own experience in time of war.
The general's son was a lieutenant of battery. An
assault was in progress. The father was leading
his division in a charge; as he pressed on in the
field, suddenly his eye was caught by the sight
of a dead battery-officer lying just before him.
One glance showed him it was his own son. His
fatherly impulse was to stop beside the loved
form and give vent to his grief, but the duty of
the moment demanded that he should press on in
the charge; so, quickly snatching one hot kiss
from the dead lips, he hastened away, leading his
command in the assault.

Weeping inconsolably beside a grave can never
give back love's banished treasure, nor can any
blessing come out of such sadness. Sorrow makes
deep scars; it writes its record ineffaceably on
the heart which suffers. We really never get over
our great griefs; we are never altogether the
same after we have passed through them as we were
before. Yet there is a humanizing and fertilizing
influence in sorrow which has been rightly
accepted and cheerfully borne. Indeed, they are
poor who have never suffered, and have none of
sorrow's marks upon them. The joy set before us
should shine upon our grief as the sun shines
through the clouds, glorifying them. God has so
ordered, that in pressing on in duty we shall
find the truest, richest comfort for ourselves.
Sitting down to brood over our sorrows, the
darkness deepens about us and creeps into our
heart, and our strength changes to weakness. But,
if we turn away from the gloom, and take up the
tasks and duties to which God calls us, the light
will come again, and we shall grow stronger.
--J. R. Miller

Thou knowest that through our tears
Of hasty, selfish weeping
Comes surer sin, and for our petty fears
Of loss thou hast in keeping
A greater gain than all of which we dreamed;
Thou knowest that in grasping
The bright possessions which so precious seemed
We lose them; but if, clasping
Thy faithful hand, we tread with steadfast feet
The path of thy appointing,
There waits for us a treasury of sweet
Delight, royal anointing
With oil of gladness and of strength.
--Helen Hunt Jackson