Today I really wish I was somewhere else. Sometimes God has a different idea of what is actually needed. I wrote the following just after hearing that Mrs. Shoemaker did not have cancer anymore.

    Life can be full of contradictions. Sometimes the greatest joy is found during the times of greatest difficulty. Sometimes the greatest beauty is found in things that, on their surface, seem ugly. Sometimes hope is the strongest in situations that otherwise invoke despair. It is interesting that those whose focus is earth will not find these contradictions; however, those whose focus is heaven will find them abundantly. Jesus spent his life on earth flouting the “norms” of earth. He established death as the path to life, service as the path to leadership, and submission as the path to freedom. He gives joy to those who weep, He makes beauty from ashes, and He has created hope where there was none.

Life hurts sometimes. Jesus knows that all too well. "There is a time to laugh and a time to weep." When the weeping time comes, we don't have to try to laugh. Jesus wept. No, "Jesus wept, butthenhelookeduptoheavenandpraisedGodforallHisgoodnessandtriedtowipeallthetearsawaybecuaseheknewthathewshouldrejoiceintimesoftrouble." Jesus wept. While we are alive we will experience times of sorrow and suffering. The beauty of the cross is that after the strifes and warrings of this life, we go to a place where perfect peace and joy reign. While there are times to weep during life, there is not only no time of weeping in heaven, there is no reason to weep. During the times of weeping here on earth we have the comfort of knowing that it will not last forever.  We have hope that it will not always be like this. There is a reason that hope and joy are two separate words. There is a reason that despair and sadness are two different words. Neither set is necessarily present at the same time. All this to say that during times of weeping, weep without despair. Weep, knowing that we have hope in Jesus. We have hope knowing that he understands the pain, and has created an ultimate remedy for it. But for now, weep with those who weep, knowing that some day, that weeping will turn to rejoicing.