“A ‘positive thinking’ person may refuse to look at anything that is painful or uncomfortable, especially the painful and uncomfortable things within himself.
A faithful person may endure pain, embrace discomfort, confront wickedness, repent desperately of his sin, weep over what is sorrowful, hate what is evil, and still have joy — a joy much deeper than the fleeting pleasure of mere optimism — because he knows that something beautiful lies beyond the suffering.
He does not attempt to go around suffering to get to the destination.
Instead, he picks up his cross and follows Christ through it, right into the pain, right into the dark, right up that terrible hill, where we know salvation awaits.”
I did not write the words above. But, for me, they describe the journey of Dawson’s Gift – following Christ through the pain and the sorrow – yet finding the joy and the beauty beyond the suffering.
Thanks be to God.
