Life's lessons

One of my favorite hymns is "Lord, I would follow thee."

I especially like the second verse:

"Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly..
In the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can't see."

It reminds me that there is so much about people that we don't know. To a certain extent, we all try to show our best and brightest side to the world. That can be pretty unfair when we start making comparisons. There have been times when I have wanted someone else's life or some component of it...when I have passesd judgment by concluding that their life has been easier than mine or they have been blessed more abundantly. Oh how I have been humbled.

When Anna was just a few weeks old, a family member of mine lost the twin boys she was carrying. I had the opportunity of attending the funeral and witnessing such an outpouring of faith and hope and love that I had never seen before. There was no anger, no bitterness...
I watched as some of my little nieces and nephews crowded around the little white box that held the two tiny babies. They would pat it gently, even reverently. This mother sat with them, holding them and answering their question about her sons. She talked about the hope of seeing her children again, of being worthy to be with them into the eternities...

My husband and I and our new baby daughter stood apart...not sure if our presence there would be a painful reminder of what these parents had lost. Later that weekend, I had a chance to sit down with this young mother while she told me about her experiences holding her sons in the hospital. She showed me the remembrance boxes that had been prepared for each one. And then she asked if she could hold Anna...

I am humbled by the example of those who have experienced untold suffering and have yet drawn closer to God. I am humbled to find that so often those people that I dismissesd as fortunate and blessed have already gone through their own personal Gesthamanes or are quietly going through them now.

I am reading "Man's search for meaning" by Victor Frankl, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, and in one passage he states:

"WE had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us...Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks that it constantly sets for each individual...

No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response...
Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross.

When man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task...His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden."

However, Victor Frankl also concludes that "He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place."

It is this last point to which I disagree. Although no other person can live our lives for us, or spare us these painful experiences, I do believe that God never meant for us to suffer through them alone. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that we can find relief from suffering. I know that Jesus Christ did suffer in our place, long ago, so that while it was necessary for us to experience pain in mortality, that we would not have to do so alone.

And while I may never know the extent to which the people around me have experienced their own unique sorrow, I know that God does. I hope He can help me to see other people as He sees them.