Pain, suffering and sadness are incredibly difficult emotions to experience. None of us relish them, yet we all share in the experience. We go to great lengths to avoid these – which makes sense – even to the extent of mediating ourselves or plunging into other indulgences to achieve ever a brief reprieve. Often these choices have a great cost, simply adding additional weight to the pain deferred, but not resolved.

The author of Psalm 126 provides us hope in this promise in verse 5 – “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!”

God promises to make all things new (Revelation 21:5) and will do so in the wisdom of his timing. We must exist with him by our side in this imperfect, dying world until that day. This promise, among countless others, provides the fuel of hope to sustain us on our journey through this life.

God looks at things in the longest view. He does care about our pain, suffering and sadness, yet he emphasizes the development of our character as he is working in and through us to reproduce his character in us –

Ephesians 4:22-24 – “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

The “sowing” of tears would have been understood by the original readers living in an agricultural-based society, that these tears were planted to yield an expected and useful crop at some point in the future.

We are to sow the tears and wait patiently for the harvest.

It may be your present challenge in life will lead you to make an important decision to do or change something necessary to draw you closer to God. Ending a relationship, committing to get help for an addiction, deciding to start a non-profit to help honor a lost loved one – there are countless things that could be positive outcomes from painful experiences. Even as simple as having a softened heart to be there for another still suffering, providing comfort because you have experienced and understand their pain.

Your pain, suffering and sadness are very real. I want to acknowledge that. Yet as Believers, we worship a God that doesn’t waste that pain. He will utilize it for our long term good and to glorify Himself. We hold to the hope of his promises and trust that he will one day we will “reap with shouts of joy” when we have the full knowledge of how God used our pain to benefit others.