Pile of Problems

You know how you've heard that thing about if everyone threw their problems into a pile you would take your own back? Maybe we only say that because the unknown is worse than the known, but I have to say I disagree. I think I would rather face a whole lot of things with my eternal companion by my side. Adam and Eve got to face the lone and dreary world together, thus making it less lone and dreary in my book. I always figured that the way life worked was you and your spouse, against the world, taking on together whatever life might throw at you. I didn't anticipate the cause of my greatest pains and sorrows would be my spouse.

However, I will say this: I have decided that there isn't any problem out there that you can't get through, so in reality it doesn't matter what problem you pick up from the pile. Human beings are remarkably resilient and adaptable. Yes it's hard, yes it hurts, for as we learn in the Princess Bride, "Life is pain." But you get through it, God is always there to help you, there are things you can do to help yourself get through it. You get through it. And chances are you've learned something important along the way.

The thing is there is no joy without sorrow, there is no health without sickness, there is no pleasure without pain, no sweet without bitter. Everything must have its opposite. Is there no other way? There is no other way. So we agreed to come to Earth and pass through sorrow so that we could learn good from evil. I could have avoided all this sorrow and pain if I had chosen to never love. But that's not a choice I was willing to make, and one I'm still not willing to make even though now I know clearly how much love can potentially hurt. So whether it be my problem, or your problem, or their problem, we get through it. By the grace of God we get through it, and we learn more about joy and peace and goodness from the experience.